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Fine  tune  your  PC 


SMALL  BUSINESS  WORKSHOP 


Expert  opinion  you  can  trust 


£3.20 


October  1999 
www.pcw.co.uk 


If  your  CDs  are  missing, 
ask  your  newsagent 


Retro  •  Resources  &  Projects* 
•Gadgets* Futures* Best  Buys 


Overseas  price  £3.95 

Austria:  ASch  112.00,  Denmark:  DKR  85.00, 
Germany:  DM  25.00,  Greece:  DRA  2,500.00, 
Holland:  HFL  18.50,  Italy:  L15,000.00. 


vnu  business  publications 


How  to  set  up  an  email  server 


MUSIC  IN  THE  AIR 

MP3  phenomenon 


First  400MHz  notebook 
MetaCreations  Poser  4 
Creative  Webcanri 

EXCLUSIVE:  WORLD  BOOK 


770142  023977 


c^mputl;  CONTENTS 


144  AMD  Athlon  PCs 


AMD  with  its  new  Athlon  processor  has  taken  on  Intel  at  its  own  game  and  this  time 
it’s  taking  no  prisoners.  Jason  Jenkins  takes  a  close  look  at  five  Athlon  machines  to 
see  how  much  punch  they  can  pack. 

150  Atlas  Meridian  K7-600  155  Mesh  Matrix  600D 

151  Carrera  Octane  M600  160  Pan rix  Magnum  600 

154  Evesham  Vale  Athlon  600 


172  Inkjet  printers 


Everyone  should  have  an  inkjet 
printer  sitting  on  their  desk,  but  not 
everyone  will  need  it  for  the  same 
tasks.  NikRawlinson  looks  at  the 
different  kinds  available 


fel 

'  m 

174 


176 

178 

178 


Budget  printers: 

Canon  BJC-1000,  Epson  Stylus 
Color 440,  Hewlett-Packard 
DeskJet  61 0C,  Lexmark  Z1 1 
Small  business  printers: 

Canon  BJC-6000,  Epson  Stylus  Color  900 
Hewlett-Packard  895CXi,  Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 
Photo  printers: 

Canon  BJC-7100,  Epson  Stylus  Photo  750,  Hewlett- 
Packard  DeskJet  880C,  Lexmark  Z51 


1 92  20  Top  Utilities 


We  have  everything  you  need  to  keep  your  system  healthy,  useful 
tools  for  tricky  jobs  such  as  partitioning  and  backup,  and  utilities 
to  help  you  get  the  most  out  ofthe  web.  Paul  Begg,  Roger  Gann 
and  Nik  Rawlinson  roll  up  their  sleeves  and  start  tinkering 


Acrobat  Reader,  Backup  Exec  Desktop  98,  ClipMate  5 
Copernic,  DisplayMate  For  Windows,  Drive  Image  3.0 
FreeSpace,  Lost  and  Found,  Net.Medic 
Norton  System  Works,  Partition  Magic, 

Post-it  Software  Notes 
PowerDesk,  Quick  View  Plus,  RealPlayer  G2 
System  Commander  Deluxe,  WebFerret,  WinZip 
WS_FTP  Pro,  ZipMagic,  Other  useful  utilities 


194 

195 
197 
199 


202 

203 

204 


FEATURES 


110  Setting  up  an  email 
server 

No  small  business  can  be  without 
email,  but  the  idea  of  setting  up  a 
system  can  be  frightening.  Nigel 
Whitfield  takes  the  stress  out  ofthe 
task  with  his  step-by-step  guide 


130  Remote  working 

More  employees  are  choosing  to 
work  away  from  the  office  -  either 
at  home  or  on  the  road.  Gordon 
Laing  looks  at  what  hardware  and 
software  you  will  need  for  an  office 
away  from  the  office 


You’ll  be  glad  ofthe  backup  a 
simple  Zip  drive  gives  you  when 
your  livelihood  depends  on  it 

p130 


140  Interview 

Roy  Stringer  is  a  man  with  a  vision. 
He  wants  to  change  the  way  we 
interact  with  PCs  at  a  fundamental 
level,  and  the  way  we  find  our  way 
around  the  Internet.  Ian  Burley 
hears  how  it  ought  to  be 


1 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


REVIEWS 


NEW  PRODUCTS 

73  Dell  Dimension  XPX  T600 

Power  for  the  professional 

74  IBM  Thinkpad  570 

Top-notch  notebook 

75  Sharp  PC-A250  Ultra  Lite 

Sub-notebook 

77  MetaCreations  Poser  4 

3D  design  and  animation 

79  Sony  Vaio  PCG-F290 

Cutting-edge  notebook 

82  CreativeLabs  WebCam  III 

Cheap  and  cheerful  camera 

82  Adaptec  Easy  CD  Creator  4 

Good  looking  CD-writing  software 

84  Philips  FreeSpeech  2000 

Talk  to  your  PC 

84  Modular  Technology 
PCTV  Tuner 

Transform  your  PC  into  a  TV 

86  Packard  Bell  EasyMate  800 

Jupiter-class  notebook 

87  Borland  JBuilder  3 

Java  application  builder 

88  Sharp  VN-EZ1 

A  video  camera  for  the  Web 

88  Diamond  Rio  PMP300  SE 

Notorious  MP3  player 

92  Proxim  Symphony  and 
Diamorm  Homefree 

Create  your  own  home  network 

93  Sound  System  DMX  vs 
Montego  II  Quadzilla 

Sound  cards  battle  it  out 

96  Coda  Finale  Allegro 

MIDI  Music  software 

98  Hewlett  Packard  DeskJet  81 5C 

Photo-quality  printer 

98  Infra-red  for  desktops 

Desktop  IR  for  only  a  tenner 

101  Compaq  Armada  1750 

Hi-spec  notebook 

101  Mag  LT561ETFT 

Stylish  multimedia  monitor 

103  Mediator  5  Pro  Edition 

Nifty  presentation  package 

104  TMC  TI6VG4  motherboard 

Dodging  the  data  rush  hour 

104  Elsa  Microlink  Office 

Multimedia  in  a  box 


HEAD  TO  HEAD 

110  Visual  Web  editing  vs 
hand-rolled  HTML 

Which  is  the  best  way  to  author 
Web  pages? 


PKRSONAL 

COMHJTER 


Lt 

1  REGULARS 

11 

Editorial 

213 

12 

Subscriptions  &  Back  Issues 

214 

15 

Cover  Disc  Notes 

A  full  version  of  World  Book 

216 

23 

News  &  Analysis 

ADSL  rollout  ieaves  many  unwired, 

‘free’  PC  offer  -  what’s  the  catch? 

66 

Letters 

217 

70 

Gadgets 

206 

Best  Buys 

276 

Futures 

220 

Home  systems  invade  the  cinema 
and  small  screens  become  a  reality 

524 

Faxback  Service 

224 

526 

Reader  Offers 

530 

Competitions 

WIN!  a  copy  of  Power  Publisher 
ora  copy  of  LapLink  Pro. 

226 

532 

Flashback 

534 

Projects  &  Resources 

230 

536 

Retro 

Arcade  action  with  the  MB  Vectrex 

233 

1  LEISURE  LINES  _ 

266 

News 

267 

Screenplay 

Kingpin:  Life  of  Crime,  Outcast, 

236 

Gruntz,  Lego  Racers,  Alien  versus 

Predator,  Amerzone 

238 

270 

CD-ROMs 

272 

Kids 

273 

Books 

240 

Competing  on  Internet  Time, 

Direct  from  Dell,  Harnessing 

Technology  for  Career  Success, 

Linux  in  Plain  English 

248 

58  Inside  Information 

In  his  first  outing,  Gordon  Laing  tells 
how  Celeron’s  up  to  speed 

60  Straight  Talking 

Barry  Fox  finds  everyone  passing 
the  buck  instead  of  making  one 

62  Business  Matters 

Brian  Clegg  reveals  the  horror  stories 
ofecommerce 

64  Out  of  Site 

Paul  Smith  finds  it’s  time  to  up 
sticks  and  move  towards  ADSL 


276  Direct 
Buyers’ 
World 


285  Buying  Advice  & 

Buyers  Charter 
505  Micromart 

519  Directory  of  Product  Suppliers 
522  Index  of  Advertisers 


ad 


^LLL 


vice 


Introduction 

A  look  at  this  month’s  features 

Workshop:  Colour  Printing 

Ken  McMahon  takes  the  stress 
out  of  colour  printing 

Year  2000:  Databases 

The  ‘bug’  can  strike  your  database 
anywhere,  but  Mark  Whitehorn’s 
trouble-shooting  tips  could  save 
your  data 

Internet 

In  the  wake  ofthe  Melissa  virus, 
Nigel  Whitfield  discusses  secure 
email  techniques 

Windows 

Tim  Nott  gives  further  tips  on 
freeing  up  space  on  drive  C: 

Web  Development 

Tim  Anderson  discusses  XML  and 
looks  at  the  basics  of  this 
emerging  technology 

Windows  NT 

Andrew  Ward  offers  advice  on  the 
benefits  of  regularly  updating  your 
Repair  Disks 

PDAs 

Mark  Whitehorn  discovers  the 
answer  to  the  ultimate  question  - 
which  PDA  OS  is  going  to  survive? 

UNIX 

The  best  word  processor  on  the 
UNIX  platform  has  to  run  the 
Remembrance  Agent,  says  Chris 
Bidmead 

OS/2 

Terence  Green  revisits  TCP/IP 

Word  Processing 

Tim  Nott  looks  at  how  to  retain 
your  creative  content  when 
forwarding  your  work  to  others 

Spreadsheets 

Stephen  Wells  hunts  down 
functions  for  calculating  the 
number  of  working  days  between 
two  dates 

Databases 

The  size  ofyour  data  can  be  a 
headache  for  mobile  users,  says 
Mark  Whitehorn 


226  Hardware 

Gordon  Laing  on  howto  get  the 
best  out  of  DVD 

250  Sound 

Steven  Helstrip  gives  you  the  low- 
down  on  MPos,  out  steers  clear  of 
the  copyright  issues 

252  Graphics  &  DTP 

Ken  McMahon  looks  at  how 
vector  tracing  can  help  maintain 
the  quality  wnen  enlarging 
bitmapped  graphics 

254  3D  Graphics 

Beniamin  Woolley  explains  why 
understanding  cinematography 
will  result  in  better  3D  animations 

256  Visual  Programming 

Tim  Anderson  on  what  to  expect 
from  Windows  2000 

261  Mac 

Cl  iff  Joseph  looks  at  the  fastest 

peripheral  connections, 

ac  h  i  eva  b  I  e  co  u  rtesy  of  Fi  re  Wi  re 

263  Networks 

In  truejames  Bond  style,  Bob 
Walder  looks  at  key  cryptography 
and  digital  signatures 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


Serious  PC  users  are  being  eclipsed  by  Internet  free-loaders 

Want  a  revolution? 


Less  than  four  years  ago^  the  best  known  Internet  service  provider  in  the  UK 
was  Demon.  For  a  tenner  a  month,  the  company  popularised  dial-up  internet 
access,  and  people  were  happy  to  pay  £120  a  year  to  participate  in  the  'world  wide 
wait'.  Today,  you  can  get  it  free.  Those  of  us  who  continue  to  pay  an  ISP  for  access 
do  so  because  we  want  guaranteed  levels  of  service  -  either  in  terms  of  making  a 
connection  or  free  technical  support. 

But  the  Tree,  gratis  and  for  nothing'  bandwagon  (not  just  free  ISPs,  but  also 
free  PCs)  is  really  on  a  roll.  It's  all  that  the  newspapers  and  television  seem  to  be 
full  of  today,  eclipsing  just  about  everything  else  in  the  world  of  IT  technology. 

According  to  the  latest  figures  from  Durlacher  Research  <www. 
durlacher.com>,  there  were  just  under  four  million  subscription-free  dial-up 
accounts  in  the  UK  in  June,  compared  to  two  million  paid-up  users.  There  were 
more  people  using  free  services  like  X-Stream,  Currant  Bun  and  Line  One  than 
using  Demon.  And  Freeserve's  1,250,000  users  dwarfed  the  subscription 
accounts  of  AOL,  CompuServe  and  Demon  combined. 

In  less  than  a  year,  in  the  UK  alone,  millions  of  new  Web  surfers  have  been  set 
loose  onto  the  information  superhighway,  and  early  in  the  new  millennium  we 
can  expect  another  couple  of  million  users  to  have  undergone  their  first 
e-initiation.  It  is  probably  one  of  the  great  mass  migrations  of  this  millennium. 

It*s  not  just  free  Internet  access  that  will  fuel  the  rush  into  cyberspace. 
Companies  like  Tiny,  Time  and  a  US  reseller  of  iMacs  have  received  widespread 
coverage  over  their  plans  to  give  away  free  PCs  along  with  subscription  telco 
accounts.  On  top  of  that,  powerful  integrated  chips  will  make  small  wireless 
information  appliances  as  ubiquitous  as  the  mobile  phone  and  the  Walkman  in 

the  next  few  years. 

In  less  than  a  year  many  millions  of  Web  surfers  But  is  communication 

for  the  sake  of  it  actually  an 

have  been  set  loose.  It  is  one  of  the  GREAT  MASS  empowering  experience? 

a  m  wr*  r*  atia^  c*  Did  the  mobile  phone  really 

MIGRATIONS  of  this  millennium  result  in  better  human 

interaction,  or  just  more  of 

it?  Does  Tm  on  the  bus,  order  the  pizza  now,'  actually  signify  an  advance  for 
humankind  through  the  use  of  new  technology?  It'll  probably  be  the  simpler 
technology  that  some  of  us  have  lived  with  for  years  that  will  finally  engage  with 
the  mass  market:  email  and  simple  information  websites. 

The  hordes  of  new  IT  users  are  getting  all  the  media  space  at  the  moment, 
because  the  media,  as  always,  is  obsessed  about  monitoring,  and  controlling, 
access  to  information.  Though  I  welcome  them  with  open  arms,  this  isn't  what 
PCs  mean  to  most  of  us.  We  want  richer  applications  that  allow  us  to  be  more 
creative  and  productive,  whether  for  leisure  or  business.  Personally,  I  can't  wait 
for  the  consumer-oriented  freeloader- attracting  hype  to  subside,  and  the  media 
to  turn  its  attention  once  again  to  how  the  PC  can  empower  and  unleash  talent. 

I  look  forward  to  a  new  century  of  richly  featured  applications  developed  for  a 
low-cost  local  area  network  in  a  home  or  small  business  setting  -  where  PCs  will 
continue  to  stimulate  economic  and  social 
advance.  The  PC  revolution  has  only  just  begun. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


11 


hesscml 


WELCOME  TO  THE  OCTOBER  1999  PERSONAL  COMPUTER  WORLD  CD-ROM 

October  COVER  DISC 


GAMES 


LIBRARY  ENTERTAINMENT  INTERNET 


We’ve  secured  a  full  version  of  the  award-winning  World  Book  encyclopedia  from  IBM 
absolutely  free.  It  comes  with  the  complete  text  of  the  world’s  number  one  print 
encyclopedia,  as  well  as  thousands  of  photos,  maps,  diagrams,  animations  and  videos. 


Getting  started 


To  begin  using  the  World 
Book  Encyclopedia,  place  the 
disk  in  the  CD-ROM  drive.  If 
you’re  running  Windows  98, 
click  on  the  Start  button  at 
the  bottom  ofyour  screen, 
then  choose  the  Programs 
menu  and  select  Windows 
Explorer. 

Once  Explorer  has 
launched,  select  your  CD- 
ROM  drive  in  the  left-hand 
window  and,  when  the  World 
Book  files  appear  in  the  right- 
hand  window,  double-click 


the  setup.exe  icon.  This  begins 
the  installation  wizard,  and  if 
you  follow  the  instructions  it 
will  automatically  put  the 
software  on  your  computer. 

Windows  95  or  users  of 
NT 4.0  and  above  can  install 
the  software  by  choosing  the 
Run  option  from  the  Start 
menu.  When  the  Run  window 
appears  type  in  the  letter  that 
represents  the  CD-ROM  drive 
followed  by  :\setup.exe  (for 
example  d:\setup.exe),  then 
click  OKto  install. 


You 
launch 
World 
Book  by 
clicking 
Start 
again, 

selecting  Programs,  then 
World  Book  and  finally  World 
Book  Encylopedia  1 998.  You 
can  also  register  the  software 
from  here  by  choosing  this 
option  instead,  which  entitles 
you  to  free  information  about 
software  and  updates  from 


IThe  Research 
Wizard  gives 

OU  A  HELPING 
AND  TO  FIND 
UT  ALL  THE 
\CTS  YOU  NEED 

IBM. 

The 

first  time 
you  launch  the  software  you 
have  to  enter  your  CD- KEY 
code: 

MH006A5000LR 
Then  you  can  select  which 
part  of  the  encylopedia  you 
want  to  browse  by  choosing 
from  the  options  provided. 


Review  of  World  Book  International  Deluxe  English  Edition  1999  from  Computeractive  28  January  1999 

World  Book 


B  c  »  d  f  n 


A  multimedia  encyclopedia  that  puts  a 
wealth  of  facts  at  your  fingertips. 

The  Internet  and  CD-ROMs  have 
opened  up  the  pages  of  books  and  the 
minds  of  experts  to  anyone  with  a  computer, 
CD-ROM  drive  and  modem.  This  powerful 
software  is  a  far  cry  from  the  dusty  books 
most  of  us  think  of  when  we  hear  the  word 
encyclopedia  -  it  might  almost  succeed  in 
making  research  fun. 

The  World  Book  was  created  with 
serious  study  in  mind.  But  using  it  is  child’s 
play.  Once  you’ve  installed  the  software 
from  the  CD-ROM,  you  are  greeted  with 
a  ‘home  page’  that  takes  you  anywhere  you 
want  in  the  package.  You  can  browse  at 
random,  looking  up  entries  that  interest  you 
or  search  for  specific  information. 


The  Monthly 
Spotlight 
feature 
picks  out 
important 
events  for  each 
month.  For 
example, 

December 
focuses  on 
Jerusalem  and 
its  connections 
with  the 
Christmas  story. 

Each  entry  is  attractively  designed  and 
accompanied  by  relevant  photos,  movies, 
audio  clips  and  animations  as  well  as  the 
text,  making  good  use  of  multimedia. 


◄World  Book's  amazing 

‘BUBBLE  VIEW’  FEATURE  LETS 
YOU  EXPLORE  FAMOUS  SCENES 
AS  IF  YOU  WERE  THERE  - 
SWIVELLING  SMOOTHLY 
THROUGH  360  DEGREES  WITH 
THE  DRAG  OF  THE  MOUSE, 
ZOOMING  INTO  DETAIL  AT  WILL 

In 

addition 
to  all  the 
articles, 

you  get  a  world  atlas,  which  covers  all  the 
countries  of  the  world  complete  with  articles 
and  photos  of  major  cities.  The  beauty  of 
this  is  that  you  not  only  get  an  overview  for 
the  geography  of  the  world,  but  you  read 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


11 


GAMES  MULTIMEDIA  HANDS  ON  FRONT  COVER 


United 

Ki'i:|ih" 


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j  -  "  c 


I 


*> 


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up  all  the 
information 
on  a  specific 
location,  so 
you  can  link 
England 
with  its 
history, 
climate  and 
economics, 
for  example.  There  is  also  a  full  English 
dictionary  as  well. 

Budding  historians  will  love 
the  Time  Frame  feature,  which 
lets  you  travel  through  time  to 
find  out  what  the  big  event  was  on 
any  date  in  the  past.  This  is  more 
than  just  a  static  reference  tool  as 
each  entry  leads  you  further  into 
the  package,  encouraging  you  to 
explore  for  yourself. 

For  school  students,  the 
Homework  Wizard  tool  is 


3  Ml  L  ^1  O  fci  H  *31 


Z1 


particularly  handy.  It  includes  a  Quiz  Wizard 
to  help  prepare  for 
exams  or  just  test  your 
general  knowledge 
through  flash  cards 
and  true-or-false 
quizzes  on  any  topic. 

There  is 
also  a 
Research 
Wizard  to 
help  you 
ferret  out 
the  facts 
you  need, 
a  Chart 
Wizard  to 
create 
graphs  and 


pie  charts,  aTimeline  Wizard  to 
help  you  trace  historic  events 
and  a  Web  Page  Wizard  to  take 
some  of  the  pain  out  of  building 
your  own  page. 


SPECIFICATIONS  &  FEATURES 


Minimum  requirements: 

Windows  95;  486DX/66MHz 
PC,  1 6Mb  of  memory,  39Mb 
of  free  hard  disk  space,  1 6-bit 
soundcard,  16-bit  colour 
capable  graphics  card, 
CD-ROM  drive.  For  online 
access  you’ll  need  a  modem, 
Internet  connection  and  an 
extra  8Mb  of  hard  disk  space. 
Features: 

Contains  every  article  found 
in  the  print  version  of  the 


World  Book  Encyclopedia. 
Full  multimedia  encyclopedia, 
including  sound,  movies, 
photos,  simulations  and 
animation. 

Homework  wizards  to  help 
with  school  projects. 

Cyber  Safari  of  San 
Diego  Zoo. 

Contains  dictionary  and 
world  atlas. 

[World  Book  1 998  Multimedia 
Encylopedia] 


A  step  by  step  guide 


IOne  ofthe 
great 
things 
about  World 
Book  is  that  you 
can  keep  the 
information  it 
provides  current 
by  updating  it  via 
the  Internet.  So 
one  ofthe  first 
things  you  can 
do  is  select  the 
What’s  Online  option  and  choose  Update  Nowto  ensure 
you’ve  got  the  latest  facts  and  figures.  Ifyour  ISP  isn’t 
configured,  World  Book’s  wizard  will  kick  in -just  tell  it  what 
sort  of  Internet  connection  you  have  and  it  will  handle  the 
rest.  From  the  Online  windowyou  can  also  access  the  World 
Book  website  for  homework  tips  and  update  information,  the 
latest  news  and  articles,  websites  relating  to  World  Book 
entries  and  archives  that  take  you  back  through  the  last 
century. 

2  If  you  have 
no 

particular 
subject  in  mind, 
and  you  just 
fancy  a  browse 
through  World 
Book,  you  can  choose  the  Entire  Encyclopedia  option  from 
the  main  menu.  You  can  return  to  the  main  menu  from  any  of 
the  pages  you  are  viewing,  by  clicking  on  the  house  icon  on 
the  toolbar  at  the  top  ofthe  page.  Ifyou  select  the  Entire 


AnSrfr  i  pik-.'rs 

E.  Hl(H  IU  IS  IIHF 
Wc&l  -Wii 

AfCpnv! 


El  33  11  *DgEJ 


Encyclopedia,  ajust  Looking  icon  appears  and  from  here  you 
can  choose  topics  to  explore,  specific  areas  you  want  to  look 
at  or  simply  choose  Random  and  a  whole  range  of  topics  will 
appear  around  the  icon  -  you  can  click  on  anyofthese  to  take 
a  closer  look. 


3  More  specific  searches  can  be  done  ifyou  choose  the 
Topics  button  from  the  main  menu.  From  here  you  can 
type  in  the  topic  that  interests  you,  press  Search  and  all 
the  entries  relating  to  that  topic  pop  up  in  the  left-hand 
window.  Click  on  anyofthese  to  pull  up  the  corresponding 
entry.  Clicking  on  any  ofthe  words  highlighted  in  blue  takes 
you  to  these  related  topics.  Each  topic  is  accompanied  by 
appropriate 
audio  and  video 
clips,  as  well  as 
pictures  and 
text.  Clicking  on 
Related  Info 
buttons  you  can 
get  any  extra 
information 
available  from 
the  CD-ROM  or 
the  Web.  Ifyou 
click  on  the  Article 
Media  (film  roll)  icon  in  the  top  left-hand  corner  ofthe  main 
window  it  will  give  you  access  to  any  extra  photos,  film  or 
sound  clips. 


4 The  Maps  section  ofWorld  Book  allows  you  to  take  a 
trip  around  the  globe  by  looking  at  maps  of  every 
country  you  can  think  ofand  a  whole  lot  more  besides. 
You  can  type  in  the  location  you  are  interested  in  to  zoom  in 


n m  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


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GAMES  MULTIMEDIA  HANDS  ON  T  FRONT  COVER 


and  view  a 
detailed  map 
of  the  area. 

The  Overlay 
Controls 
button  gives 
you  access  to 
geographical 
information 
such  as 
population 
and  average 

temperatures.  You  can  use  the  Distance  Calculator  to  tell  you 
how  far  you  would  have  to  travel  to  get  from  Paris  to 
Zanzibar,  for  example.  Ifyou  want  to  find  out  more  about  a 
place  you  can  choose  Go  To  Article  to  take  you  directly  to  all 
the  information  World  Book  holds  on  that  location. 


5  A  really  handy  feature  ifyou  Ye  using  the  World  Book  to 
help  out  with  schoolwork  is  the  Homework  Wizards. 
This  allows  you  to  select  from  three  options  to  help  you 
complete  specific  projects  -  you  can  choose  from  Report 

Wizard, 
Timeline 
Wizard  or 
Chart  Wizard. 
Report 

Wizard  guides 
you  step-by- 
step  through 
writing  up  a 
report,  while 
Timeline 
Wizard  helps 
you  create  a 

chronological  picture  of  events  and  Chart  Wizard  helps  you 
out  with  graphical  projects.  Each  one  allows  you  to  either 
create  a  project  from  scratch  or  work  on  one  you  prepared 
earlier,  using  information  provided  by  World  Book.  The 
wizards  provide  a  structure  for  you  to  work  to,  and  you  can 
print  out  any  information  you  need  directly  from  World  Book 
using  the  Tool  Kit,  located  on  the  left-hand  of  the  toolbar. 


Eh  Eh  ti*P  tm 


6 Explore  history  using  World  Book’s  Time  Frame  by 
typing  in  which  millennium,  era,  century,  decade  or 
year  you  want  to  know  about.  You  can  choose  whether 
you  want  to  view  all  the  information  available  on  that  time 
period,  or  just  the  history  or  geography.  For  example,  typing 
in  the  year  ofyour  birth  and  choosing  All  Categories  will  bring 
up  any  topic  of 
interest  for  that 
year  and  you  can 
click  on  any  of 
these  to  find  out 
more.  You  can 
access  a  new 
Time  Frame  at 
anytime  by 
choosingthis 
option  from  the 
toolbar. 


'! 

tlAKi 

SUBMIT 

7  World  Book  contains  a  wealth  of  audio  and  video  clips, 
pictures  and  ‘bubble  views’,  which  allowyou  to  explore 
a  photo  usingyour  mouse.  Ifyou  select  the  Media  icon 
you  can  search  exclusively  through  these  images  and  clips. 

The  first  time  you  select  Media  it  defaults  to  showing  what 
you  have  currently  selected  in  the  encyclopedia,  so  ifyou  were 
looking  at  Africa,  for  example,  the  first  piece  of  media  you’ll 
see  will  relate  to  this.  However,  you  can  choose  to  browse  all 
the  media  available;  you  can’t  search  through  these  but  you 
can  explore 
the 

alphabetical 
list  to  pick 
out  what  you 
want  to  look 
at.  Click  on 
any  of  the 
entries  to 
view  the 
related 
media;  an 
icon  next  to 

the  entry  tells  you  which  sort  of  media  you  will  get,  for 
example  a  camera  means  a  picture,  while  a  speaker  icon 
means  there’s  an  audio  clip  foryou  to  listen  to. 

8 The  What’s  New  section  gives  you  all  the  relevant 
information  relating  to  the  current  month.  For 
example,  in  July  99  you  get  links  to  an  American 
Independence  Day  entry  as  well  as  information  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  first  landing  on  the  moon.  You  can  also 

click  on  any  of 
the  words 
highlighted  in 
blue  which 
will  take  you 
directly  to  the 
corresponding 
topic.  There 
are  also  a 
number  of 
trivia  links  to 
things  such  as 
the  great  and 

the  good  born  in  this  month  plus  handy  topical  links,  such  as 
summer  sports  and  holiday  reading  suggestions. 


IMPORTANT 

NOTICE 


I  The  publisher,  VNU,  has 
■  .  checked  the  Personal 
jLk  .  Computer  World  C  D-  RO  M 
for  known  viruses  at  all 
stages  of  production, 
but  cannot  accept  liability  for 
damage  caused  either  to  your  data 
or  your  computer  system,  which 
may  occur  while  using  either  the 
disc  or  any  software  contained  on 
it.  Ifyou  do  not  agree  with  these 
conditions,  you  should  not  use  the 
disc.  It  is  good  practice  to  run  a 
virus  checker  on  any  new  software 
before  running  it  on  your  computer, 
and  also  to  make  regular  backup 
copies  of  all  your  important  data. 


V  Physically  Damaged  Discs 

Ifyour  disc  is  PHYSICALLY  DAMAGED, 
please  return  it  with  a  covering  note 
including  your  name  and  address,  to: 

TIB  pic  Damaged  Discs 

Unit  5  Triangle  Business  Park 

Pentrebach 

Merthyr  Tydfil  I 

Mid  Glamorgan  CF48  4YB 

quoting  reference  ‘PCW  Vol  22  No  1 0’. 

A  replacement  disc  will  be  sent  to  you  by 
post.  NOTE:  Replacement  discs  cannot  be 
supplied  direct  from  the  VNU  offices. 

For  general  problems  with  the  CD,  the 
Technical  Helpline  is  open  weekdays  from 
09.30am  to  4.30pm  on  01 685  354726. 

•  Please  use  the  address  printed  here,  as 
replacement  discs  cannot  be  supplied  direct  from 
the  VNU  offices. 


IS 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •October  1999 


vN 


Send  your  news  and  views  to  news@pcw.co.uk 


Edited  by  CLIVE  AKASS 


Three  in  four  miss  out  as 
BT  launches  fast  links 


INSIDE 

Pill  THRASHED 

AMD’s  new  Athlon  gives  Intel 
the  jitters  p age  25 

AOL  SULKS 

Microsoft  plays  the  innocent 
as  AOL  spurns  its  instant 
messages  page  25 

BIG  BROTHER 

...shouldn’t  be  watching  you. 
Clampdown  on  office  email 
spies  p age  30 

FREE  MONEY 

Do  you  think  there  is  no  such 
thing?  Then  check  out  this  site 
page  34 

FASTNET 

Two-page  update  as  Ethernet 
hits  giga  speeds  page  38 

FREE  PCS 

Special  report  page  40 

EYE  FOR  AN  i 

Gordon  Laing  looks  at  Apple’s 
new  portable.  Tim  Bajarin 
wonders  if  style  is  enough 

pages  48  and  52 

BLUE  NOTE 

Will  Bluetooth  devices  talk  to 
each  other?  page  56 


Service  providers  held  their 
cards  close  to  their  chests 
after  last  month’s  long- 
awaited  unveiling  of  British 
Telecom’s  plans  for  rolling 
out  fast  ADSL  services. 

BT  says  more  than  six 
million  homes  and  businesses 
will  have  an  ADSL  option  by 
next  March,  following 
upgrades  to  more  than  400 
local  exchanges  as  part  of  a 
£5  billion  network  revamp. 

But  the  rollout,  which  will 
benefit  big  cities  first,  will 
miss  three  in  four  of  the 
population.  Many  others  will 
not  be  able  to  afford  the 
service,  which  will  be  sold 
through  access  providers 
rather  than  direct  from  BT. 
Base  charges  will  be 
between  £40  a  month  fora 
51 2 Kbit/sec  link  to  £1 50  for 
a  2Mbit/sec  link  (the  uplink 
in  each  case  is  256l<bit/sec). 
Vendors  will  not 


necessarily  charge  a  premium 
on  these  rates  and  may  even 
offer  discounts.  They  face 
competition  on  price  from 
cable  companies,  which  will 
all  offer  cable  modem 
services  by  next  March. 

Cable  modems  offer  high 
speed  in  both  directions  at  a 
rate  that  depends  on  how 
many  people  are  usingthe 
channel:  400  Kbit/sec  is  likely 
and  faster  may  be  common. 
Charges  of  £30  a  month  have 
been  cited. 

AOLsays  it  will  conduct  a 
national  ADSLtrial  with 


selected  users  this  autumn. 
Virgin  Net,  which  has  been 
trialling  the  technology  all 
year,  says  it  will  also  be 
offering  ADSL. 

Complicatingthe  picture  is 
the  new  G-lite  standard, 
which  is  a  simplerform  of 
DSL,  and  proposals  from 
watchdog  Oftel  to  force  BT 
to  'unbundle  the  local  loop’  - 
opening  up  its  home  links  to 
competition.  These  moves 
should  lead  to  a  free  market 
in  xDSL  links  similarto  that 
in  audio-modems. 

Clive  Akass 


This  Zoom  cable  modem  for  the  US  shows  the  sort  of  device 
that  may  come  with  an  open  market  in  fast  links.  It  has 
built-in  ports  for  USB,  Ethernet  or  phone-net  links  and  an 
802.1 1  wireless  net  slot.  Curiously,  there  is  no  1 394  link. 


Price  war  as  Tiny  PCs  and  AOL  go  free 


Tiny’s  free  PC  deal  is  not  quite  as 
good  as  it  sounds.  You  don’t  get  a 


PC  vendor  Tiny  threw  a  spanner  into 
the  UK’s  IT  works  last  month  by 
offering  a  PC  worth  around  £300  free 
to  people  who  sign  up  to  its  fee-free 
net-access  service. 

Two  days  later,  giant  AO  Leaved  in  to 
market  pressure  by  announcing  a  fee- 
free  web-access  service  called  Netscape 
Online  to  complement,  rather  than 
replace,  its  flagship  paid-for  services. 


monitor  and  you  have  to  commit  to 
spending  £25  a  month  (ex  VAT)  on 
phone  calls  at  full  BT  rates  via  Cable  & 
Wireless,  which  normally  offers 
discounts.  As  our  analysis  on  page  40 
shows,  you  might  be  better  off  taking 
discounts  direct  from  C&W  or  other 
cut-price  providers.  But  the  deal 
immediately 
sparked  off  a  war 
of  prices  -  and 
words.  Tiny’s  big 
pile  ’em-high  rival 
Time  countered 
with  a  'free’  PC 
offer  contingent 
on  the  customer 
signing  up  to  a  £9 
a  month  net- 
access  service. 


Tiny,  which  claimed  to  have  had 
20,000  enquiries  within  days  of  making 
its  offer,  dismissed  this  as  'a  combined 
subscription-based  Internet  package 
and  hire  purchase  agreement’. 

PC  World,  owned  by  Dixons,  offered 
a  more  complex  offer,  also  contingent 
on  a  C&W  sign-up,  of  200  freephone 
minutes  a  month  on  the  net,  plus  a 
range  of  call  discounts  or  a  refund  of 
up  to  £300  on  a  PC. 

Meanwhile  service  provider  City2000, 
in  what  may  be  another  new  trend, 
offered  what  it  called  an  'upgrade  PC’ 
for  £229  (ex  VAT)  with  Windows  98, 
32Mb  RAM  and  a  4Gb  hard  drive  -  but 
no  keyboard,  mouse  or  monitor,  which 
you  are  expected  to  take  from  an  older 
system.  The  price  includes  a  one-year 
guarantee. 

•  Point  of  view . .  .page  26 

•  Tiny  deal  in  detail  ...page  40 


Screaming.Net  calls  time 


creaming.Net,  which 
offers  off-peak  freephone 
net-access,  has  instituted  a 
two-hour  timeout  to  cut 
congestion.  It  could  cut  off 
lengthy  downloads. 

The  timeout  can  be 
avoided  by  calling  up  a  Web 


page  in  a  second  window  if 
necessary.  A  spokesman  said 
it  prevents  users  'drifting  into 
paid-for  time’. 

The  service  already  claims 
to  have  more  than  1 1 0,000 
users  and  to  be  overcoming 
early  log-jams. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


23 


Intel  jitters  as  Athlon  thrashes  PIN 


Intel  launched  two  new 
chips  last  month  as 
spoilers  forthe  launch  of 
AMD’s  latest  Athlon  chips, 
which  VNU  tests  confirm 
outperform  equivalent 
Pentiums. 

Intel  launched  afastest-yet 
600MHz  Pill  chip  and  a 
500MHz version  ofits 
budget  Celeron  processor. 
Bulk  prices  were  cited  as 
$600  and  $167  respectively, 
undercutting  the  pre-launch 
$699,  $479  and  $324  cited 
respectively  for  AMD’s  new 
500MHz,  550MHz  or 


600MHz  Athlons  (previously 
known  as  the  K 7). 

AMD  responded  promptly 
by  announcinga  650MHz 
Athlon  at  $849  and  prices 
between  $61 5  and  $249  for 
the  slower  parts. 

Tests  in  the  VNU  Labs  gave 
Sysmark  scores  -  which 
measure  performance  on  a 
variety  of  basic  applications  - 
ofjust  over  230  forthe  Intel 
chip  and  between  250  and 
260  forthe  Athlon,  making  it 
roughly  10%  faster. 

But  this  is  using  code 
which  is  not  optimised  for 


either  chip.  Athlon,  in  the 
words  of  one  VNU  tester, 
‘blows  the  Pill  away’  on  code 
which  has  been  compiled 
to  take  advantage  ofits 
graphics  facilities. 

AMD  is  not  exactly  riding 
high.  Its  president,  S  Atiq 
Raza,  resigned  last  month 
following  a  second  quarter 
loss  of  $1 62  million,  although 
it  posted  a  $79.9  million 
profit  forthe  latest  quarter. 

And  the  performance  lead 
is  expected  to  swap  back  and 
forward  between  Intel  and 
AMD  as  the  two  companies 


push  clockspeeds  up.  Intel 
has  yet  to  release  its 
‘coppermine’  processors, 
using  0.1 8  micron 
technology,  which  permit 
higher  clock  speeds,  lower 
operating  voltages  and  lower 
power  drain  (although  not 
necessarily  all  at  once). 

Intel  has  delayed  the 
launch  of  the  mobile  and 
desktop  versions  ofits  0.1 8 
micron  chips  until  late 
October,  in  time  forthe  big 
Fall  Comdexshow.  Initial 
clock  speeds  are  expected  to 
be  667MHz  and  700MHz. 


Toshiba  boasts  first  DVD  combo 

Toshiba  claimed  a  world  first  last  month  with  the  launch  of  a  combined  DVD 
and  rewritable  CD  drive.  It  also  announced  a  range  of  2.5in  hard  drives 
for  mobiles  with  a  claimed  world  data  (real)  density  of  11.6Gb 
per  square  inch.  The  SDR1002  drive  (pictured)  is  said  to 
support  all  CD  formats  and  DVD  ROM.  It  boasts  a  4x  write 
speed  for  CD-R  and  CD-RW,  and  a  24x  CD 
playback.  Shipping  dates  and  prices  have  yet 
to  be  announced.  The  new  2.5in  disks  went 
into  production  last  month.  They  pack  6.4Gb  “■ 

into  a  single  platter,  allowing  a  18.1Gb  device 
to  fit  a  slim  12.5mm  notebook  bay.  Toshiba 
says  this  will  provide  notebooks  with 
desktop  standard  storage  for  the  first  time. 
www.  toshiba-europe.  com 

MS  and  AOL  lock  horns  over  messaging 


Microsoft  unabashedly  claimed  the 
moral  high  ground  over  open 
standards  last  month,  in  a  battle  with 
service  provider  AOL  over  instant 
messaging  services.  The  services  allow 
you  to  communicate  instantly  with 
anyone  on  your  ‘buddy  list’  who  is  online 
at  the  same  time.  AOL  pioneered  the  idea 
two  years  ago  with  its  Instant  Messenger 
service,  which  can  also  be  used  by  users 
of  the  latest  version  of  Lotus  Notes. 

Open  warfare  broke  out  in  July  after 
Microsoft  launched  a  similar  MSN 
Messenger  service,  which  could  talk  to 
AOL’s.  A  game  oftit-for-tat  began  as 
AOL  blocked  rival  users  and  Microsoft 
posted  fixes  to  resume  contact. 

At  one  point,  Microsoft  posted  a  new 


fix  virtually  every  day  for  two  weeks.  AOL 
responded  by  licensing  its  service  to 
Apple  and  leading  US  service  providers. 

Then  Microsoft,  sitting  on  one  ofthe 
biggest  market  corners  in  history,  called 
on  AOL  president  Steve  Case,  asking  him 
to  support  an  open  standard  in  instant 
messaging.  The  call  was  backed  by  AT&T, 
Excite@home,  Yahoo  and  Infoseek. 

AOL  then  cheekily  used  Microsoft’s 
own  software  as  a  marketing  tool.  MSN 
Messenger  users  were  told  they  had  been 
disconnected  from  its  messengers  service 
for  using ‘unauthorised  software’. 

It  then  invited  users  to  download  a  free 
version  ofits  own  messaging  client. 

AOL  had  not  responded  to  requests  for 
comment  as  we  went  to  press. 


Her  messagingservice  is  not  talking  to  mine 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


25 


NatSemi  launches  Geode  to  twist  ARM 


Kchip  designer  ARM 
has  reacted  coolly  to  the 
launch  ofthe  first  of  rival 
National  Semiconductor’s 
new  PC-on-a-chip  designs, 
the  Geode  SC1400. 

The  Geode  is  designed  for 
use  in  set-top-boxes  and  Net 
access  devices  like  the  Cyrix 
Webpad  -  though  NatSemi 
has  sold  Cyrix’s  high-end 
processor  business  to 
boardmakerVia. 

The  SCI  400  will  be  the  first 
ofa  range  of  highly  integrated 
chips  built  for  specific 


tasks  around  a  classic  x86 
core.  Cheekily,  NatSemi  calls 
them  Information  Appliances 
(lA)-on-a-chip.  lAalso 
happens  to  stand  for  Intel 
Architecture. 

The  Geode  range  will  do  for 
x86  cores  what  licensees  do 
with  ARM  cores:  add  extra 
silicon  to  tailorthem  for 
particular  uses.  Jamie 
Urquhart,  ARM’s  chief 
operating  officer,  said  the 
Geode  'takes  advantage  of 
the  PC  architecture  and  the 
great  body  of  code  that  has 


i  been  written  for  it’. 

But  he  said  the  Geode 
j  could  actually  boost  ARM 
j  sales  because  its  chips  might 
j  be  used  in  subsystems.  The 
I  drawback  ofthe  Geodes 
j  would  be  their  relatively  high 
j  current  drain. 'One  ofthe 
j  advantages  of  an  ARM  is  that 
j  it  has  a  simple  elegant 
!  architecture.  We  have  not 
j  had  to  bodge  things  onto  it 
j  to  make  it  backwards 
I  compatible  as  Intel  has  to 
j  do,’ Urquhart  said. 

Other  UKcompanies  are 

3D  takes  to 

Anew  range  ofchips  from 
S3  brings  desktop-  j 

standard  3D  performance  to 
notebooks  for  the  first  time,  j 

the  company  claims.  j 

The  Savage/ MX  and  j 

Savage/IX chips  (insetlefi)  j 

support  up  to  1 6Mb  of  j 

dedicated  memory  and  use  j 

0.1 8  micron  technology,  j 

operating  at  a  battery-saving  j 

1 .8  volts.  Features  include  j 

32-bit  colour,  60  frames  per 


also  benefiting  from  interest 
in  non-x86  chips.  Element  14, 
which  like  ARM  is  from  the 
old  Acorn  stable,  received  an 
injection  of  $1 3.5m  venture 
capital  last  month  to  develop 
digital-signal  processors,  the 
CPUs  associated  with 
telecoms  and  multimedia. 

And  MPEG  guru  Adrian 
Wise  hasjoined  London- 
based  Siroyan  Technology  to 
develop  designs  for 
multimedia  appliances. 


www.  arm.  com;  www.  national,  com 

the  road 

second  in  most  3D  tasks  - 
including  Quake  II  -  and  S3 
Texture  Compression  (S3TC), 
delivering  a  claimed  6x 
increase  in  image  quality  (see 
screenshot  left). 

The  MX  chip  costs  $42 
and  there  are  three  IX  chips 
costing  $49,  $56  and  $68  - 
integrated  with  4Mb,  8Mb 
and  16Mb  of  RAM 
respectively  (all  prices  for 
bulk  orders). 


point  of  view  i  Free  to  complain 


To  those  who  complained  about 
getting  caught  in  the  rush  when 
Freeserve  started  up,  I  extend  sympathy, 
and  to  those  infuriated  by  delays  in 
getting  plugged  into  Screaming. Net  I 
offer  the  same,  and  still  more  in  advance 
to  those  ofyou  who  will  no  doubt 
complain  about  Tiny’s  'free’  PC  offer. 

Your  complaints  will  serve  to  keep 
these  companies  on  their  toes.  But  to 
my  mind  their  pioneering  offers  have 
come  in  for  far  more  flak  than  they 
deserve,  not  least  in  the  press. 

Freeserve,  almost  single-handedly, 
created  the  critical  mass  needed  to  kick- 
start  electronic  commerce  -  a  revolution 
that  has  finally  begun  in  earnest.  It 
was  in  the  air  at  an  E-Academy  talkfest 
last  month,  attended  by  luminaries 


from  some  ofthe  biggest  wired 
businesses  in  Britain.  One  said:  'Six 
months  ago,  ifyou  mentioned 
ecommerce  to  a  company  board  they 
would  hardly  know  what  you  were 
talking  about.  But  not  now.  They  know 
all  about  it.  They  can  see  it  happening.’ 

Tiny’s  offer,  while  not  earth-shattering 
in  itself,  will  doubtless  lead  to  better 
deals  as  the  cost  ofWeb-access  devices 
drops;  Screaming.Net’s  off-peak 
freephone  access  is  the  nearest  most 
home  owners  can  currently  get  to  an 
always-on  connection.  They  will  not 
then  be  content  with  less,  which  is  no 
bad  thing,  because  the  great  untold 


truth  about  the  Net  is  that  most  ofwhat 
it  offers  is  commercially  viable  only  with 
always-on  links. 

None  ofthese  companies  is  giving  us 
something  for  nothing,  nor  even 
necessarily  the  best  deal  (see  page  40). 
But  they  are  forcing  the  pace  of  change. 

BT’s  ADSL  rollout  shows  what 
happens  before  competition  kicks  in 
properly.  Most  people  will  not  be  able 
to  afford  the  service,  and  those  who  can 
will  be  stuck  with  BT’s  choice  of  boxes. 

The  good  news  is  that  BT’s  measured 
pace  may  give  us  a  more  robust 
infrastructure  than  the  mess  in  the  US. 
But  when  BTis  forced  to  loosen  its  grip, 
which  will  happen  quite  soon,  it  will  be 
the  Freeserves,  Screaming.Nets  and 
Tinys  that  will  bring  us  the  benefits. 


I  Clive  Akass 


0 


on  the  cut-price  deals  that  will  benefit  the  Net. 


26 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Microsoft  buys  Symbian  ally 


Microsoft  has  bought 
UK  microbrowser 
developer  STNC,  as  part  of 
its  battle  to  make  Windows 
CE  the  de-facto  standard 
operating  system  for  next- 
generation  mobile  phones. 

CE’s  main  rival  is  the  EPOC 
OS  from  Psion  spin-off 
Symbian,  which  has  the 
backing  ofthe  major  mobile 
phone  manufacturers  - 
Nokia,  Ericsson,  Motorola 
and  Matsushita  (Panasonic) 
are  major  shareholders. 

A  ‘microbrowser’  is  STNCs 
term  fora  browser  tailored 
towards  the  limited  resources 
of  a  palmtop  or  mobile 
phone.  It  allows  mobile  users 
to  surf  the  Internet  and  send 
and  receive  email. 

The  story  becomes  more 
interesting  when  you  discover 
that  one  of  STNCs 
customers  is  none  otherthan 
Symbian  itself. The  Internet 
software  in  Psion’s  Epoc- 
based  Series  5  and  5mx 
handhelds  includes  code 
licensed  from  STNC. 


Symbian  hit  problems  with 
STNC  once  before,  over  the 
free  EPOC  emulator  WINS, 
which  allows  coders  to 
develop  Series  5  applications 
under  Windows.  These  apps 
have  to  be  recompiled  for  the 
Series  5’s  ARM  processor, 
and  Symbian’s  licence  from 
STNC  covered  only  the 
distribution  of  ARM  binaries. 

The  wrangle  delayed  the 
release  ofthe  emulator  for 
over  six  months,  indicating 
how  much  the  current 
Epoc  release  depends  on 
STNC  code. 

Microsoft  acknowledged 
that  Symbian  is  an  STNC 
licensee,  and  said  it  would 


▲The  WINS  Epoc  emulator 

IS  AHEAD  OF  THE  MARKET,  AS 
ITS  RIVAL  THE  SERIES  5  HAS 
YET  TO  BOAST  COLOUR 

continue  to  work  with  the 
leading  players.  Microsoft 
has  already  announced  its 
intention  to  provide  Net 
access  via  mobile  phones  late 
next  year. 

Symbian  commented  that 
it  is  currently  focusing  on 
WAP  (wireless  application 
protocol)  technology,  which 
it  believes  will  supersede 
HTML  for  delivering  content 
to  mobiles.  Symbian  has 
developed  this  independently 
of  STNC. 

Will  Head 


Hey.. .can  we  have  our  name  back? 


Companies  were  warned  last  month  to 
take  care  when  hiring  people  to  set 
them  up  on  the  Net  -  orthey  could  end  up 
not  owningtheir  domain  name. 

The  risk  was  highlighted  by  a  dispute 
between  Sussex-based  Clarkes  Stationers 
and  Access  Internet,  which  it  hired  to  design 
its  website  and  registerthe  domain 
clarkesonline.co.uk.  Access  Internet  claimed 
ownership  ofthe  domain  when  the  two  fell 
out  -  and  demanded  £3,000  for  ‘works 
carried  out’  before  releasing  the  domain. 

Manager  Kiren  Patel  said:  ‘It’s  been  a 
nightmare.  I  didn’t  know  howto  register  a 


name  and  wanted  the  hassle  taken  away.’ 

He  added  that  the  Web  address  was  printed 
on  catalogues  worth  £30,000. 

John  Mawhood,  ofsolicitorTarlo  Lyons, 
warned  that  name  registration  is  too  often 
used  as  a  business  lever.  ‘Companies  should 
stipulate  that  they  own  the  name  irrespective 
of  anything  else  done  by  the  contractor.’ 

Access  Internet,  after  contact  from  the 
press,  agreed  that  Patel  could  have  the 
domain  for  the  original  registration  fee  ‘as  a 
goodwill  gesture’.  But  a  spokeswoman  said: 
‘We  do  not  accept  Mr.  Patel’s  complaints.’ 

Lisa  Kelly,  VNU Newswire 


Corporate  crackdown  for  MP3s 


Employers  which  allow 
staff  to  download  MP3 
music  files  were  warned  last 
month  that  they  could  be 
sued  for  copyright  abuse. 
The  files  can  also  be 


distributed  by  email, 
dogging  networks  and  using 
up  to  3.5Mb  of  server  space 
per  track,  security  specialist 
Unipalm  says. 

Chris  Heslop,  of  Content 


Technologies,  developer  of 
the  security  product 
MIMEsweeper4.0,  said: 
‘Lost  productivity  is  just  part 
ofthe  issue...  the  idea  that 
[companies]  are  legally 
liable  for  bootlegged  files  is 
very  real.’ 


The  high  price 
of  Net  stocks 

Those  who  predicted  that  Internet 
stock  prices  could  not  keep  going 
up  were  right.  A  big  selloff  of  Net 
stocks  is  suddenly  accelerating, 
decimating  the  phenomenal  gains 
made  earlier  this  year.  The 
technology-laden  Nasdaq  composite 
index  was  a  painful  1 1 .3  percent 
lower  in  early  August  than  the  all-time 
high  it  reached  on  1 6th  July. 

Some  welcome  the  slump  as  a 
chance  to  buy  these  stocks  cheap,  but 
a  shake-out  had  been  on  the  cards 
and  it  was  scary  for  investors. 
Amazon.com,  for  instance,  closed  in 
early  August  at  $88.44  -  60  per  cent 
lower  that  at  its  April  peak. 

The  big  investors  have  increasingly 
dropped  traditional  valuation 
methods  and  have  instead  gambled 
on  the  perceived  earning  potential  of 
shares.  Online  broker  Charles  Schwab 
recently  traded  at  1 00  times  its  annual 
earnings  per  share  -  a  more  normal 
ratio  would  be  1 5:1 .  This  is  even  more 
surreal  in  that  many  high-valued  firms 
have  never  earned  a  profit. 

There  are  signs  that  investors  are 
starting  to  get  selective  and  that  the 
Net  stocks  market  will  take  a  backseat 
for  a  few  months,  as  people  gamble 
on  the  effects  the  millennium  bug  will 
have  on  markets. 

Wondering  whether  to  upgrade 
to  Windows  2000  when  it 
ships  in  October?  US  Web 
co-founderSheldon  Laube,  one 
ofSilicon  Valley’s  top  technology 
minds,  tells  me  the  beta  his  team  has 
been  using  is  rock  solid.  Other 
software  developers  tell  me  the  same 
thing:  unlike  Win98,  which  is  still 
quirky,  Win2Kjust  plain  works. 

Win2l<also  offers  enhanced 
support  for  MP3  music  and  digital 
photography,  better  connectivity  and 
Net  integration,  and  built-in  home 
networking.  When  word  of  all  this  gets 
out,  Win2l<  might  just  become  the 
fastest  selling  OS  in  history. 


Tim  Bajarin 
letter  from  Silicon  Valley 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


27 


short  . 
stones 


in#-  COMPAQ  CEDES 
TOP  SPOT  TO  DELL 

Compaq  appointed  a  new 
boss  last  month  and 
announced  it  would  shed 
more  than  8,000  jobs  - 
despite  increasing  its  share 
as  the  world’s  top  PC  seller. 
The  appointment  of  Michael 
Capellas  as  president 
followed  the  resignation  of 
Eckhard  Pfeiffer,  in  the 
wake  of  a  costly  merger 
with  Digital. 

Compaq  lost  £1 84 
million  in  the  three  months 
up  to  June.  Its  global  share 
of  PC  sales  increased  by 
0.6  per  cent  to  1 4.6  per 
cent,  shipping  3.7  million 
PCs  in  the  period. 

Ominously,  Compaq 
ceded  the  UK  top  spot  to 
Dell,  which  took  1 9  per  cent 
of  the  market  compared 
with  Compaq’s  1 6  per  cent. 

mi*  DEVICES  THREAT 
TO  WINDOWS 

A  massive  growth  in  the 
use  ofwireless  Web-access 
devices  over  the  next  few 
years  will  reduce  the 
dominance  ofWindows, 
said  Steve  Mills,  IBM’s 
general  manager  for 
software.  He  told 
developers  at  IBM’s 
Solutions  99  conference: 
'When  I  live  in  a  browser 
the  underlying  OS  doesn’t 
matter.’ 

IBM  is  plugging  its 
strengths  in  integrating 
different  platforms  with  a 
new  Developer  Works 
portal  which  is  divided 
into  technology  zones, 
including  one  devoted  to 
Linux.  At  the  conference, 
IBM  outlined  new  Linux 
support  and  education 
offerings. 

Representatives  from 
Caldera,  Red  Hat  and 
TurboLinux  said  the  move 
would  make  it  far  easier 
for  I BM  and  others  to 
support  multiple  Linux 
distributions. 


Intel  sips  another  DRAM 


An  admission  by  Intel  that  it  is  'evaluating’ 
the  PCI  33  synchronous  DRAM 
standard  has  had  many  in  the  industry 
breathing  a  sigh  of  relief. 

The  company  had  been  backing  the  rival 
Direct  Rambus  technology.  But  Intel 
customers  and  the  rest  ofthe  industry  were 
voting  with  their  feet  after  persistent  reports 
of  problems  with  Direct  Rambus 
yields,  speeds  and  prices. 

Major  partners  like  HP,  IBM 
and  Compaq  pleaded  at  an  Intel 
'plugfest’  in  June  for  Intel  to 
reconsider  its  decision. 

Life  would  be  far  rosier  for  PC 
assemblers  and  board  makers  had 
Intel  backed  PCI  33  from  the  start. 

Rambus  partners  including 
Apacer,  an  Acer  subsidiary,  have 
admitted  having  problems  with 
Rambus  modules.  Intel  has  even 
had  a  problem  with  the  Camino 
i820  chipset,  which  was  supposed 
to  be  the  tinderthat  would  ignite 
the  Rambus  flame.  The  chipset  is 
slated  for  release  this  autumn. 


Both  the  i81 0  and  i820  chipsets  will  have  to 
be  re-engineered  for  PCI  33.  But  insiders  say 
Intel  has  had  a  contingency  plan  forthis  right 
from  the  beginning  ofthe  year. 

The  real  loser  is  likely  to  be  Rambus.  Its 
shares  fell  $14  to  just  above  $98  on  news  of 
Intel’s  about  face. 

Mike  Magee 


Samsung  claims 
these  4Mb 
ferroelectric 
memory 
(FRAM)  chips 
put  it  two  years 
ahead  of  its 
rivals,  which  are 
still  working  on 
256Kb  chips. 

FRAM,  which  stores  bits  in  tiny  magnetic  dipoles, 
combines  the  speed  of  conventional  RAM  with  the 
stability  of  Flash  RAM  -  no  power  is  needed  to  retain 
information.  The  bigger  chips,  which  will  ship  in 
volume  early  next  year,  are  likely  to  revolutionise 
memory  use  in  mobile  devices. 


Holo-days  brought  forward 


Next-generation  holographic  storage  is 
only  three  years  away- three  years 
earlier  than  predicted,  IBM  says. 

The  technique  uses  lasers  to  write  and  read 
data  stored  in  a  three-dimensional  form  in 
atom-sized  units.  There  are  no  mechanical 
parts  and  all  ofthe  information  in  a  page  is 
accessed  simultaneously  -  speeding  up  access 
and  write  times. 


But  IBM  does  not  expect  the  market  to 
mature  for  a  few  years,  explained  Christoph 
von  Gamm,  communications  manager  at  the 
IBM  Technology  Group.  'Raid  controllers  will 
dominate  for  at  least  1 0  years  and  digital  tape 
is  having  a  great  revival.  It  will  be  the  standard 
for  permanent  storage  for  the  next  10  or  20 
years,’  he  said. 

Andy  Favell 


4:4  vision 

Sight-reading  music  is  one  ofthose 
subjects  which  can  never  be  learned 
completely  from  a  book.  You  may 
understand  what  notes  sit  where  on  the 
stave,  and  the  theoretical  value  of  a  minim, 
crotchet  or  quarter  rest;  but  to  turn  those 
values  into  sounds  and  beats  in  your  head, 
you  need  practice  and  a  patient  teacher. 

Teachers  don’t  get  more  patient  than  a 
computer,  and  Guildsoft’s  Music  Ace  2  is 
the  latest  of  many  CDs  to  exploit  this  fact  to 
teach  music.  It’s  aimed  at  children,  with  a 
cute  professor  beating  time,  but  would  help 


any  adult  trying  to  brush  up  on  their  sight 
reading.  It  costs  £25.49  (ex  VAT)  and  even 
runs  on  a  Win  3.1  486  PC. 

Guildsoft  01 752  895100 


28 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Clampdown 
on  email  big 
brother 


Companies  which  pry  into  the 
online  activities  of  their  staff 
could  face  a  fine  of  up  to  £5,000 
from  next  year. 

Strict  guidelines  on  both  the 
interception  ofemail  and  the  use  of 
genetic  or  drug  tests  will  be  drawn  up 
next  April,  according  to  Data  Protection 
Registrar  Elizabeth  France. 

She  said  they  were  needed  because 


‘new  technology  is  threatening  personal 
privacy  in  the  workplace’. 

Critics  said  the  code  could  make  the 
virus-scanning  ofemail  illegal.  But 
Lawrence  Phillips,  a  partner  at  London 
solicitor Tarlo  Lyons,  said  companies 
could  get  round  this  by  making  the 
surrender  ofemail  privacy  a  condition 
of  employment. 

VNU  Newswire 


Putting  one  finger  up  to  the  law 
can  take  on  a  dire  new  meaning 
in  countries  where  a  print  swipe 
is  your  ID  forgetting  benefit.  In  South 
Africa,  for  instance,  fingers  have  been 
cut  off  for  use  by  fraudsters. 

Combinations  of  biometric  security 
measures  are  being  developed  that 
could  soon  replace  PINs,  passwords, 
smart  cards  and  even  keys,  according 
to  Mike  Dell,  biometrics  technology 
manager  at  Cambridge-based 
Neurodynamics. 

The  company,  formed  by  a  group  of 
researchers  in  1 991 ,  claims  to  be  the 
only  one  in  Britain  to  be  trialling  3D 
facial  recognition,  which  is  potentially 
more  accurate  than  the  current  2D 
technology. 

Biometric  security  -  that  is,  the 
automatic  identification  of  a  person 
from  physiological  or  behavioural 
characteristics  -  has  only  recently 
become  practical  as  it  needs  vast 
processing  power  and  older 
computers  simply  took  too  long.  The 
latest  fast  chips  and  the  falling  cost  of 
sensors  make  it  far  more  viable. 

Neurodynamics,  which  focuses  on 
fingerprint  and  facial  recognition,  is  in 
talks  with  a  number  of  major  players 
from  different  industries,  from 
computing  through  retail  to 
automotive,  about  adapting  its 
systems  to  specific  needs. 

Its  experience  comes  from  designing 
and  implementing  criminal  fingerprint 
systems  for  police  forces  and 
governments.  Dell,  who  made  a  major 
contribution  to  the  Neurodynamics 
system,  called  Nvisage,  says  the 
technology’s  time  has  now  come. 

The  company’s  trials  of  its  facial 
recognition  scan  are  taking  place  in 
the  area  of  customer  relations 
management. 

Nvisage  uses  3D  facial  scans  to 
verify  identity  in  less  than  a  second 


Dab  hand  at  secuHty 


and  can  be  used  with  single  or 
multiple  cameras.  Establishing  who’s 
who  at  the  entrances  of  shops  and 
upmarket  restaurants  opens  the  door 
to  knowing  whether  a  shoplifter  or  an 
important  customer  has  walked  in. 

Neurodynamics  has  also  lifted  the 
veil  on  its  Deixis  system  for  developing 
fingerprint-based  security  measures  in 
devices  such  as  laptops,  PDAs  and 
mobile  phones.  It  will  have  a  deterrent 
value  to  thieves  who  know  the  devices 
are  locked  to  their  owner’s 
characteristics,  says  Dell. 
www.  neurodynamics.  com 

Video  streaming  is  coming  in  as  a 
business  tool  as  higher  bandwidth 
becomes  available,  and  cheap  high- 
capacity  hard  disks  are  revolutionising 
home  entertainment.  These  hot 
technologies  constitute  the  playpen  of 
Imerge,  part  ofthe  Generics  Group, 
which  has  long  been  working  in  the 
video-on-demand  field.  Imerge 
launched  its  XiVA  home  media  server  a 
year  ago  and  its  latest  version,  the 


Field  High  School 
have  maths  lessons 
delivered  by  an 
Imerge  XiVA  digital 
multimedia  server 


XiVA- 100 
multi-room 
server,  uses 
hard  disks  to 
provide 

unprecedented  flexibility  in  howyou 
get  your  music.  It  should  be  in  the 
shops  by  Christmas. 

The  system  will  store  music  from 
hundreds  of  CDs.  Different  tracks  can 
be  played  simultaneously  to  different 
rooms  and  you  can  record  while 
listening  to  or  playing  different  tracks. 
Tracks  can  also  be  stored  and  played 
by  artist  type,  style  or  genre. 

A  virtual  DJ  takes  care  of  playback, 
selecting  tracks  to  fit  the  need  -  you 
can  theme  it  for  a  party  or 
background  listening.  Connect  a 
modem  and  you  can  buy  CDs  or  order 
concert  tickets  online. 

Sales  director  Robin  Courtenay  said 
the  concept  ‘flies  in  the  face  of 
traditional  listening.  It  takes  the  effort 
out  of  trawling  through  CDs  to  find 
what  you  want.’ 
www.imerge.co. 


Caroline  Swift 


continues  her  reports  from  Silicon  Fen 


30l 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


short  . 
stones 


nit  BUG  SPREAD 
Microsoft  has  admitted  that 
a  security  flaw  in  Office  97 
Desktop  enables  hackers  to 
delete  or  manipulate  data. 
The  bug  occurs  in  an  ODBC 
driver  in  Excel  97  and  could 
be  triggered  by  opening  a 
spreadsheet  attached  to 
an  email  message.  It  does 
not  affect  Office  2000. 
Microsoft  said  it  would  post 
a  fix  as  soon  as  testing  was 
completed.  Information  on 
the  security  hole  can  be 
found  at 

www.  officeupdate.  microsoft.  com 
/ articles/ mdacjtyp.  h  tm 

in+  GOING  DUTCH 

The  deadline  for  submissions 
for  this  year’s  Emma  awards 
for  interactive  media  is 
24th  September.  Judging 
will  take  place  in  Amsterdam 
on  8th-10th  October. 

Details  are  at 
www.  emmaa  wards.  com 

ii+  KNEES-UP  FOR  MICE 
Nicholas  Mark  Innovation 
has  designed  an  edged 
mouse  pad  designed  to  be 
used  on  the  knee. 
www.  nmi.  ukf.net 

iii+ FAST  CD-RW  DRIVE 
Memorex  has  launched 
what  it  claims  is  the  fastest 
CD- Rewrite  drive  yet.  The 
£1 99  CD-RW  6424  writes 
at  6x,  rewrites  at  4x  and 
reads  at  24x. 

MemtekOI 81  990  6600 


iii+  CD  RENTAL  PLAN 

The  Blockbuster  video  chain 
has  produced  a  test  CD  in 
a  bid  to  boost  rentals  of 
games  and  other  CDs.  The 
CD  will  be  given  out  at 
stores  to  check  a  customer’s 
PC  for  compatibility  with 
different  titles. 

Blockbuster  0 1 985  258866 


Pixel  ceiling  smashed 


It’s  been  eat-your- words 
time  for  one  industry 
luminary  following  the 
launch  of  two  new  Fujitsu 
cameras.  Nancy  Carr,  general 
manager  of  Nikon’s 
consumer  group,  predicted 
at  Comdex  last  year  that  the 
definition  of  consumer 
digital  cameras  would  stay 
below  two  megapixels. 

She  reasoned  that  this 
definition  is  high  enough  for 
non-professional  users  and 
that  any  higher  would  require 
too  much  memory  and 
processing  power. 

Fujitsu’s  tiny  2.3Megapixel 
MX-2700  has  just  hit  the 
shelves  for  £480  (inc  VAT), 


and  its  big  brother,  the 
MX-2900  at  £700  (inc  VAT)  is 
about  to  ship.  They  boast  the 
same  2.3  megapixel  sensor, 
giving  an  1 800x1 200  picture, 
but  the  MX-2900  has  the 
kind  ofversatile  manual 
controls  normally  found  only 
on  optical  single-lens-reflex 
cameras. 

You  can  choose  apertures 
between  F3.3  and  F1 1 ,  with 


the  shutter  speed  adjustable 
from  three  seconds  to 
1  /1 000  second.  Its  3x  optical 
zoom  is  equivalent  to  a 
standard  35mm  -  1 05mm 
lens,  and  there  is  a  swappable 
28mm  wide-angle  lens. 

You  only  have  eight  full- 
definition  pictures  on  the 
8Mb  SmartMedia  card 
supplied,  but  32Mb  cards 
can  be  used.  Fujitsu  claims 
the  camera’s  Rise  processor 
copes  quickly  with  the  large 
files  -  continuous  shooting 
mode  can  take  nine  frames  a 
second.  Watch  out  fora 
review  in  PCW. 


www.  fujiflm.  co.  uk 


Parlez-vous  to  a  speech  engine 


A  French  company  has 
turned  speech 
recognition  on  its  head  to 
produce  a  new  way  of 
teaching  languages. 
Auralog  is  using  a 


dictation  engine  from 
Learnoutand  Hauspieto 
train  people  in  correct 
pronunciation.  Instead  ofthe 
engine  having  to  adapt  to 
yourvoice,  as  in  conventional 
electronic 
dictation 
systems,  you  have 
to  adapt  to  the 
electronic  voice. 

The  program 
provides  detailed 
physiological 
diagrams  to 
explain  how  a 
sound  is 
produced,  and 


sound-wave  images  to  show 
how  your  pronunciation 
differs  from  the  correct  one. 

The  Spoken  ErrorTracking 
System  (SETS)  is  used  in 
Auralog’s  £49.99  (inc  VAT) 
Tell  Me  More  series  of 
CD-based  packages  for 
learning  French,  German, 
Spanish,  Italian  or  English, 
with  a  choice  ofthree  levels. 

Curiously,  the  software  is 
tuned  to  foreign  speakers  and 
may  reject  native  speech  as 
incorrect .  Clive  Akass 


www.  auralog.  com; 

Koch  (distributor)  01256  707767 


...ora  mobile  virtual  girlfriend 


Let  me  tell  you  about  my 
new  friend.  She  listens  to 
me,  understands  me  and 
hangs  on  every  word  I  say. 
Unfortunately  she  is  not  real; 
she  lives  in  a  box  (she  told  me 
this  herself).  Flername  is 
Wildfire  and  she  can  be  your 
friend  too,  ifyou  have  an 
Orange  mobile  phone. 

Wildfire  can  take  messages, 


make  calls  and  store  contact 
details,  instructed  by  voice 
commands  alone. 

The  system  records  the 
name  and  number  of  callers, 
so  replying  is  simply  a  matter 
of  saying:  'Give  them  a  call.’ 
Accurate  speech  recognition 
combined  with  an  intuitive 
interface  means  you’ll  soon 
be  wondering  how  you 


managed  with  'Press  one  to 
listen  to  your  messages...’ 

Wildfire  has  a  one-off 
connection  fee  of  £1 0,  no 
monthly  fee  and  calls  are 
charged  at  normal  answer- 
phone  rates.  For  more 
information  visit  the  website. 

Will  Head 


www.  orange,  co.  uk/ wild ft re 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


CONNECTIVITY 


Survival  of  the  fittest 


Bluetooth  prototypes  are  emerging  -  but  will  the  final  products  be  on  speaking  terms? 

Vendors  are  keeping  their 
fingers  crossed  about 
products  using  Bluetooth,  the 
low-cost,  short-range  wireless 
link  that  is  expected  to 
revolutionise  the  design  and 
use  of  mobile  devices. 

They  hope  to  avoid  the 
teething  problems  that  held 
back  the  adoption  of 
technologies  like  infra-red 
links  and  PCMCIA  slots.  In 
theory,  any  Bluetooth  device 
will  be  able  to  talk  to  any 
other  Bluetooth  device  within 
a  range  ofabout  1 0m. 

‘We  don’t  know  what  will 
happen  until  products  start 
coming  out,’  said  a 
spokesman  for  Cambridge- 
based  Bluetooth  specialist 
Symbionics,  now  owned  by 
Cadence. 

Almost  every  big  name 
company,  with  the  exception 
of  Microsoft,  hasjoined  the 
Bluetooth  initiative,  the  first 
products  from  which  are 
likely  to  ship  early  next  year. 

Last  month,  Denmark- 
based  Digianswer,  which  did 
much  ofthe  early  work  on  the 
technology,  launched  two 
versions  of  a  kit  designed  by 
developers  to  build 
applications  around  the 
technology.  The  company 
claims  that  there  is  a  scarcity 
of  silicon  with  which  people 
can  test  their  software. 


After  all  the  talk  of  cellphones  frying  brains,  you  may 
wonder  why  this  man  seems  to  think  he  has  to  carry 
his  bike  rather  than  the  other  way  round.  But  it  is  just 
Ericsson’s  way  of  showing  off  its  Bluetooth  headset 
and  wrist  PDA.  Strange  people,  those  Swedes. 


One  kit  is  built  around  a 
Bluetooth  PC  Card  and  the 
other  around  an  RS232  serial 
interface.  The  kits,  which  are 
software  upgradable  to  any 
changes  to  the  Bluetooth 
standard,  cost  £5,000  each, 
and  developers  will  need  at 
least  two.  The  company  also 
has  a  prototype  Bluetooth 
module  forthe  Palm  Pilot V. 

Digianswer  initially  plans 
to  launch  two  Bluetooth 
products  next  February,  a  PC 


Card  and  USB  dongle, 
followed  by  an  Ethernet  link, 
a  phone  link  and  a  headset. 
These  will  allow,  for  example, 
a  notebook  to  automatically 
link  to  a  network  or  logon  to 
the  Internet  via  a  phone  line. 

Digianswer  demonstrated 
a  three-way  game  played  over 
Bluetooth,  and  a  video- 
conferencing  link  across  a 
table.  The  data  rate  was 
about  700Kbit/sec  but 
Bluetooth  will  reach 


1  Mbit/sec  when  optimised 
and  dedicated  silicon  is 
available.  ‘Instant-Network’ 
technologies  such  as  Java- 
based  Jini  and  Microsoft’s 
UP&P  -  designed  to  allow 
linked  devices  to  collaborate 
automatically  -  are  seen  as 
complementary  to  Bluetooth. 

There  may,  however,  be 
some  overlap  with  802.1 1 , 
the  IEEE  wireless-networking 
standard  that  looks  like  an 
attractive  alternative  to 
cabling  up  homes  and  offices. 
It  has  1 0  times  the  range  of 
Bluetooth  and  will  have  more 
than  1 0  times  the  speed.  The 
two  use  the  same  frequency 
band  and  there  have  been 
suggestions  that  they  could 
interfere  with  each  other. 

An  IEEE  group  is  testing 
the  two  to  eliminate  the 
possibility,  according  to 
Ultan  O’Rahallaigh,  who 
heads  Digianswer’s  marketing 
and  support  arm  in  Ireland: 
‘When  we  were  in  the  middle 
of  demonstrating  our 
products  in  the  US,  some 
people  deliberately  brought 
notebooks  using  802.1 1  into 
the  room.  They  had  little  or 
no  effect  on  the  data  rates.’ 

Geoffjackman  ofZoom, 
which  makes  802.1 1 
networking  kits,  said:  ‘The 
two  will  live  happily  together.’ 

Clive  Akass 


Novell  takes  the  directory  approach 


Novell  is  evolving  from  the  NetWare 
company  into  the  directory 
company,  because  ofthe  need  to 
manage  identity  on  the  Internet  and 
other  networks,  says  CEO  Eric  Schmidt. 
He  claimed  at  Edge  99,  Novell’s  annual 
education  conference,  that  the  firm’s 
‘multi-year  lead  in  directory  services  is  a 
franchise  to  lead  change  in  the  industry’. 

Novell  Directory  Services  (NDS),  now 
running  on  Windows  NT  and  Unix,  will 


underpin  a  range  of  directory-based  Net 
appliances.  First  to  be  released  is  a 
plug-in  Internet-caching  appliance  which 
accelerates  Web  servers  and  will  be  sold 
by  Compaq  and  Dell.  On  the  horizon  are 
directory-based  storage  and  content 
management  appliances,  and  Novell  is 
workingwith  Lucentto  build  NDS  into 
telephone  switches  and  routers. 

Novell’s  NDS-based  desktop 
management  line  is  also  growing. 


ZENworks  2  for  Windows  networks  will 
be  followed  by  ZENworks  for  Printers  - 
to  manage  distributed  printing  resources 
-  and  ZEN  Single  Sign-on,  for  logging  on 
to  multiple  network  applications  such  as 
Notes,  Oracle  and  SAP. 

A  forthcoming  upgrade  for  Group- 
Wise,  Novell’s  NDS  messaging  system, 
will  add  Web-design  tools  and  the  ability 
to  use  Microsoft  Outlook  clients. 

Terence  Green 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


short  . 
stones 


mi*  ONE  IN  THREE  NETTED 

One-in-five  UK  homes  -  five  million 
of  them  -  will  be  online  byjanuary, 
predicts  a  report  from  Continental 
research.  It  says  the  proportion  of 
wired  homes  has  risen  from  5  per 
cent  to  1 7  per  cent  in  just  1 8 
months,  with  the  launches  of 
Freeserve  and  The  Sun’s  Currant 
Bun  service  as  key  contributors. 
More  than  one-in-three  people 
have  access  at  home  or  work.  This 
represents  a  huge  opportunity  for 
etraders  because  40  per  cent  of 
users  are  blue  chip  professionals. 

Angela  Soane 

hi*  ONLINE  MOVERS 

Nearly  one-in-three  people 
who  visit  booking  sites  make 
reservations  through  them  -  a 
1 0  per  cent  increase  on  last  year, 
according  to  a  study  by  NPD 
Online  Research.  Nine-out-of-1 0 
people  booking  flights  online 
reported  either  being  ‘extremely’ 
or  ‘somewhat’  satisfied. 

in*  GIGS  FOR  GRABS 
A  new  site  claims  to  have  been  set 
up  by  musicians  for  musicians  who 
see  the  Internet  as  part  of  the  road 
to  success.  It  will  provide  artists 
with  their  own  space  to  promote 
and  sell  their  music  -  even  if  it  is 
only  one  track. 
www.  timmol.  com 

in*  ONLINE  CLAIMS 

Legal  sites  seem  to  be  the  new 
thing  on  the  Web.  The  latest  to  set 
up  aims  to  help  you  go  through  the 
process  of  making  small  claims. 

You  can  find  it  at 
www. justclaim.  co.  uk 

mi*  PRICELESS  NEWS 

Free  daily  newspaper  The 
International  Times  covers  US  and 
international  news  and  is  designed 
to  be  printed.  It  is  available  from 

www.  intemationaltimes.  com 

hi*  ON  THE  CARDS 

Card  Corporation,  which  sells 
personalised  business  cards  online, 
will  now  do  mass  mailshots  using 
customers’  address  listings. 

www.  cardcorp.  co.  uk 

hi*  E-CORNER  SHOP 

A  virtual  newsagents,  stocking  350 
titles,  has  opened  at 

www.  magazinecafe.  co.  uk 


Make  money  for  nothing 


The  dizzy  free-for-all 
that  is  Net 
economics,  which 
has  seen  bil I ion-dol lar 
valuations  on  loss-making 
companies,  last  month  saw 
the  launch  of  a  site  that 
pays  people  to  visit  it. 

Other  sites  that  made 
small  cash  offers  derived 
from  advertising  revenues 
have  faltered  in  part 
because  there  were  not 
enough  Web  users  to 
generate  an  income. 

The  aptly  named 
www.  freemoney.  fm  d  i  ffe  rs  i  n 
that,  at  a  time  when  Web 
usage  is  at  last  reaching 
critical  mass  for  serious 
trading,  it  is  paying  people 
to  be  questioned  for  market 
research  -  a  minimum 
£1 ,000  to  one  visitor  drawn 
at  random  per  day. 


It’s  the  brainchild  of 
brothers  Steven  and 
Geoffrey  Hope,  who  run  a 
70-year-old  family  clothing 
business  and  reckon  they 
can  do  market  surveys  at 
halfthe  price  oftraditional 
methods.  And  Steven  says: 
‘We  can  do  in  a  day  what 
other  market  research 


companies  could  not  do  in 
two  weeks.’ 

Surprisingly,  they  say 
they  will  not  ask  for 
personal  details;  instead 
they  will  map  demographics 
from  other  surveys  on  to 
their  own  results.  They 
claim  US  research  shows 
their  method  is  as  accurate 
as  traditional  ones. 


. .  .and  get  shares  for  free 


A  start-up  Web-access 
provider  is  taking  a 
leaf  out  of  the 
Silicon  Valley  success  book 
-  by  offering  users  shares  in 
the  company.  The  practice 
of  innovative  start-ups 
offering  talented  staff  stock 
options  is  credited  as  being 
one  ofthe  drivers  ofthe 
Valley’s  IT  revolution  (as 
well  as  making  multi¬ 
millionaires  of  many  of 
Microsoft’s  early  staff). 

Users  ofthe  fee-free 
Totaliser  service,  which 
hopes  to  attract  1 00,000 
users  in  six  months,  will  own 
67  percent  ofthe  ordinary 
shares.  They  get  50  shares 
(worth  20p  each)  at  sign-up 
and  a  further  200  ifthey  use 
the  service  for  1 00  minutes 
a  month. 

The  shares  are  tradable 
on  OFEX,  unlike  the  ‘units’ 


offered  in  a 
similar  scheme 
launched  a  few 
days  previously 
by  TheMutual. 
net,  in  which  the 
value  ofa  user’s 
shares  will  be 
locked  into  the 
company  until  it 
decides  to  float. 

Totaliser 
co-founder  Peter  Gregory 
genuinely  seems  to  have  a 
certain  idealism  about  the 
project.  He  made  £1 2m 
from  an  earlier  project,  a 
medical  recruitment  agency, 
and  donated  10  per  cent  of 
his  profits  to  staff.  He  also 
claims  to  have  given  his 
income  for  the  past  two 
years  to  Oxfam. 

‘This  is  a  completely  new 
business  model,’  he  said  of 
Totaliser.  ‘I  believe  it  is  a 


‘Model  of 
model  of  THe  future’ 

the  future.’ 

OtherTotaliser  benefits 
include  free  technical 
support,  email  accessible 
via  a  browser  or  POP3  client 
like  Outlook,  fax-to-email,  a 
streamlined  search  engine, 
and  an  Opera  browser  that 
can  be  used  even  on  old 
286s  and  Win3.1  machines. 


www. totaliser.net 
www.  themutual.  net 


34 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Securing  the  Web 

A  white  paper  intended  to  give  econsumers  confidence  ignores  the  wider  issues,  says  Clive  Akass. 


You  can  design  your  own  business  cards  online  atwww.cardcorp.co.uk.  Etrade 
sites  like  this  will  soon  be  able  to  carry  a  seal  of  approval 


Trustworthy  websites  will  soon  be 
able  to  gain  accreditation  from  a 
new  'fair  trade’  body,  the 
government  has  pledged  in  a  bid  to 
boost  confidence  in  online  shopping. 

The  promise,  made  in  a  white  paper, 
followed  hot  on  the  heels  of  publication 
of  the  draft  Electronic  Communications  Bill , 
which  covers  etrade. 

The  Government  describes  this  bill, 
which  will  be  put  to  Parliament  in  the 
autumn,  as  providing  a  'light-touch 
framework’,  which  will  curb  fraud  while 
providing  ecommerce  with  a  minimum  of 
restrictive  legislation.  In  fact,  the  bill’s 
emphasis  is  more  on  facilitating  etrade 
than  on  protecting  the  buyer.  A  separate 
white  paper,  Modern  Markets:  Confident 
Consumers,  describes  existing  consumer 
legislation  as  needing  little  extension.  But 
it  adds:  'The  Government  will  legislate 
when  new  circumstances  emerge...  that 
cannot  be  dealt  with  in  other  ways.’ 

The  paper  promises  action  to  allow 
dissatisfied  buyers  to  gain  redress  quickly 
and  cheaply.  It  says  online  buyers  in 
particular  want  to  be  sure  that  their 
payments  are  secure,  that  what  they  have 
ordered  will  turn  up,  and  that  there  will 
be  some  way  to  sort  problems  out. 

The  accreditation  body,  provisionally 
called  TrustUK,  will  be  in  place  by  the  end 
of  the  year.  It  will  ensure  that  applicants 
adhere  to  a  code  of  practice  and  it  will 
provide  a  distinctive  hallmark  for  sites 
which  gain  its  approval. 


The  body  is  being  set  up  in 
conjunction  with  the  Consumers’ 
Association  -  which  already  runs  a  similar 
scheme  called  Web  Trader  -  and  the 
Alliance  for  Electronic  Business.  Alan 
Stevens,  editor  of  Which?  Online,  says: 
'Shopping  online  offers  great  benefits  to 
consumers  but  understandably  they  want 
reassurance  that  the  Internet  is  a  safe 
place  to  shop.’ 

The  Electronic  Communications  Bill 
approaches  security  from  another  angle, 
making  electronic  documents  and 
signatures  legally  valid.  The  most 
controversial  proposal  of  earlier  drafts, 


the  'key  escrow’  plan  to  enable  police 
and  security  services  to  read  encrypted 
files,  has  been  dropped. 

This  would  have  required  decrypt 
keys  to  be  lodged  with  so-called  Trusted 
Third  Parties,  which  would  be  obliged 
to  surrender  them  to  the  authorities. 
Instead,  the  bill  gives  police  and  security 
services  the  authority  to  demand  either 
the  key  to  an  encrypted  documentor 
a  decrypt. 

Critics  point  out  that,  as  drafted,  the 
bill  allows  police  to  demand  decrypt 
keys  without  obtaining  a  warrant.  A  DTI 
commentary  casts  a  curious  light  on 
why  the  Government  is  so  keen  to  gain 
access  to  the  keys:  'During  1 996  and 
1 997,  “intercepts  of  communications” 
led  to  1 ,200  arrests,  and  the  seizure  of 
450  firearms  and  drugs  worth  £600m.’ 

But  none  ofthe  draft  measures 
appear  to  address  what  could,  for  the 
Government,  be  far  costlier  than  crime  - 
tax  avoidance  by  Web  companies  based 
overseas.  The  problem  has  been 
highlighted  by  bookmaker  Victor 
Chandler,  which  is  evading  a  nine  per 
cent  betting  levy  by  taking  bets  online 
from  Gibraltar. 

The  process  is  ongoing  and  ministers 
are  still  seeking  comments  on  both  the 
bill  and  the  white  paper. 


www.dti.gov.uk. 


By  George,  it  pays  to  be  careful 

PCW’s  own  consumer  watchdog,  Anthony  George,  can  be  forgiven  for  casting  a 
rather  jaundiced  eye  on  Web  purchases.  As  manager  of  our  customer  relations 
department,  he  deals  with  the  proportionately  few  off-th e-PCW- page  transactions 
that  go  wrong. 

His  advice,  as  always,  is  to  pay  by  credit  card,  the  supplier  ofwhich  is  liable  for 
losses  ifthe  transaction  goes  wrong.  But  even  this  apparently  straightforward 
liability  can  become  blurred.  Companies  that  put  their  own  brand  on  Visa  or 
Mastercard  cards,  for  instance,  may  deny  a  contractual  relationship  with  an 
offending  vendor. 

An  out-of-court  settlement  was  made  by  one  such  company,  which  initially  tried 
that  one  on.  But  Tony  said:  'The  fact  that  this  sort  ofthing  is  extremely  difficult  to 
resolve  when  it  occurs  in  Britain  is  nothing  compared  with  the  trouble  which  may 
be  encountered  if  payment  is  made  for  goods  -  which  are  not  received,  or  are  faulty 
-  from  a  company  in  Milwaukee,  for  example.’ 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Hidden  surprises  in  Tiny  packages 

Clive  Akass  weighs  up  the  pros  and  cons  of  the  latest  company  drive  to  get  you  on  the  Internet. 


There  is  no  such  animal  as 
a  free  PC.  But  this  is 
precisely  what  Tiny  claims  to 
offer  to  people  who  sign  up 
to  its  phone  service  and  fee- 
free  net-access  bundle. 

The  phone  link  is  provided 
by  Cable  &  Wireless,  which  is 
as  solid  as  British  Telecom, 
and  line  charges  are  pegged 
to  those  of  BT.  On  the  face  of 
it,  BT  customers  get  instant 
net  access  and  a  PC  worth 
about  £300  at  no  cost,  simply 
by  switching  providers.  So 
where’s  the  catch? 

The  PC  is  basic,  to  say  the 

least:  a  300MHz Celeron 
processor  (the  one  with  the 
cache,  not  the  crippled  first 
release),  a  3.2Gb  hard  disk,  a 
CD  drive,  32Mb  of  RAM,  a 
56K  modem,  a  1 2-month 
warranty,  and  free  delivery. 

This  would  be  more  than 
adequate  for  routine  tasks  if 
you  were  not  expected  to  use 
a  TV  link  as  a  monitor.  The 
system  also  lacks  a  floppy 
drive,  speakers,  and  any 
software  except  Windows  98. 

And  you  have  to  spend 
£25  a  month  (plus  VAT)  in 
phone  calls  for  a  year,  making 
a  total  commitment  of 
£352.50  including  VAT.  Tiny 
reckons  the  average  bill  for 
voice  calls  is  between  £22  and 
£24  a  month,  and  that  net 
time  will  make  up  the 
difference.  Even  so,  the 
figures  hardly  support  its 
claim  to  be  opening  up  the 
Web  to  poorer  people. 

For  an  extra  £7.49  a 
month  over  four  years,  plus 


Cut-price  phone  services 
should  offeryou  still  better 
discounts  on  line  charges. 

You  could,  for  instance, 
sign  on  to  Cable  &  Wireless 
direct,  rather  than  through 
Tiny.  Everyone  gets  100  free 
local  minutes  a  month,  a 
maximum  50p  charge  for  any 
national  call  on  Saturdays, 
and  up  to  20  percent  off 
international  calls.  Its  site  at 
www.cwcom.net  includes  a 
calculator  that  will  estimate 
your  savings. 


www.  uk.  tiny,  com 


£39.95  delivery  -  a  total  of 
£399.47  (inc  VAT)  -  you  get  a 
better  system  boasting  a 
333MHzCeleron,  a4.2Gb 
hard  drive,  a  1 5 in  SVGA 
monitor,  speakers,  a  claimed 
£400  worth  of  software,  and 
1 2  months’  free  insurance. 

You’d  be  better  advised  to 
upgrade  the  free  one.  A 
cursory  trawl  of  ad  verts  will 
find  you  a  1  5in  monitor,  a 
floppy  drive,  and  speakers  for 
around  £1 50,  including  VAT. 

Tiny  gets  from  the  deal 
much  the  same  as  high-street 
chain  Tempo  gets  from  its 
launch  ofScreaming.Net, 
which  offers  freephone  Web 
access  via  Localtel  during  the 
evenings  and  weekends.  Both 
are  trying  to  capture 
customers  in  time  forthe 
ecommerce  explosion;  both 


are,  in  effect,  taking  a  cut  of 
your  phone  bill. 

Screaming.Net  offers  a 

good  comparison.  It  can’t  yet 
provide  usage  figures  -  the 
service’s  many  teething 
problems  would  render  them 
meaningless  anyway  -  but  we 
can  take  some  ball-park 
figures  from  AOL.  Its  UK 
users  spend  an  average  1 4 
minutes  a  day  online  -  about 
seven  hours  a  month.  When 
AOL  abolished  time-based 
charges  in  the  US,  where  local 
calls  are  free,  time  spent 
online  quadrupled. 

Therefore  Screaming. Net’s 
free  off-peak  usage  could 
average  56  minutes  a  day  in 
the  UK,  if  it 
manages  to  get 
its  service  levels 
up  to  scratch. 


This  may  be  on  the  high  side 
in  the  short  term,  but 
remember  that  Web  concerts 
and  other  lengthy  attractions 
are  more  viable  on  freephone; 
and  the  more  that  people  use 
the  Web,  the  better  the 
general  contentwill  become. 

The  figures  in  the  table 
(below)  show  the  annual  cost 
for  these  usage  figures  for 
both  deals,  assuming  a  year 
(with  days  off)  of  50 
weekends  and  240  weekdays, 
with  net  access  exclusively  off- 
peak.  With  56  minutes  a  day 
off-peak  net  time,  your 
savings  on  Screaming.Net, 
would  virtually  cover  the  cost 
of  the  Tiny  PC  in  a  year. 

Tiny’s  deal  is  more  like  a 
disguised  hire 
purchase.  With  the 
company  raking  in 
those  line  charges, 
the  longer  you  stay 
with  it,  the  worse  it 
gets.  But,  used  cannily,  it 
might  suit  some  people. 


▼Tiny’s  marketing 
director  Neil  Stevens 

WITH  THE  ‘FREE’  PCs  - 
RUT  THOQP  MONITORS 
XTRA 


Figures  for  net  time  all  ofF-peak.  All  include 
VAT  but  exclude  line  rental. 

Tiny 

SCREAMING.NET 

cost/min 

14  min/day 
on  net 

56  min/day 
on  net 

cost/min 

14  min/day 
on  net 

56  min/day 
on  net 

1 00  weekend  days 

£14.00 

£56.00 

0 

£0.00 

£0.00 

240  week  days 

1.49p 

£50.06 

£200.26 

0 

£0.00 

£0.00 

Average  monthly  voice  bill  £25.85 

£310.20 

£310.20 

Less  10% 

£279.18 

£279.18 

Annual  total 

£374.26 

£566.46 

£279.18 

£279.18 

Annual  saving 

£95.08 

£287.28 

40 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Just  the  Jobs? 


Tim  Baj'arin  looks  at  an  amazing  recovery  and  asks  if  Apple  can  make  it  long  term  on  style  alone. 


Steve  Jobs  is  doing  a 
masterful  job  of 
getting  Apple  back 
on  track,  which  is  ironic  as 
the  company’s  first  major 
turnaround  was  a  direct 
result  of  him  running  it 
almost  into  the  ground.  In 
1 984,  right  after  the  Mac 
was  introduced,  it  became 
clear  to  Apple’s  board  that 
Jobs’  management  style  and 
shoot-from-the-hip 
approach  to  products  was  a 
major  problem.  They 
brought  injohn  Sculley, 
who  quickly  brought  order 
and  discipline  and  helped 
the  company  become  a 
computing  powerhouse. 

The  company  took  a 
terrible  dive  after  Sculley 
was  forced  to  resign  in  1 993 
and  it  was  on  its  deathbed 
by  the  time  Steve  Jobs  took 
the  reins  again  in  1 998. 

Today,  at  least  on  the 
surface,  Apple  looks  mighty 
good.  When  Jobs  took  over, 

Apple’s  stock  was  about 
$13.  It  recently  closed  at  $54. 

When  Jobs  started  his  role  as  interim 
CEO,  as  he  calls  himself,  the  morale 
inside  Apple  was  very  bad.  More  than 
20  top  managers  quit,  leaving  very  few 
talented  people  to  help  turn  the  firm 
around.  However,  he  brought  in  two 
top  executives, Jon  Rubenstein  and  Avi 
Tevanian,  both  former  NeXT  employees, 
and  as  they  say,  the  rest  is  history. 

In  two  years,  Jobs  has  brought  the 
lustre  back  to  Apple,  introduced 
powerful  computers  that  meet  and 
exceed  the  demands  of  its  high-end 
customers,  and  is  now  taking  aim  at  the 
emerging  consumer  market.  His  iMac  is 
a  real  hit,  with  its  unique  design  and 
multi-colour  formats  and  he  has 
increased  market  share  from  four  per 
cent  in  early  1 998  to  about  5.8  percent 
today.  The  iBook,  Apple’s  new  consumer 
portable,  should  bring  in  first-time  users 
as  well  as  meeting  the  Mac  community’s 
demand  fora  low-cost  portable. 


So  -  in  the  short  term,  at  least  -  it 
looks  like  Apple  is  back  on  track  towards 
a  rosy  future,  but  there  are  still  worries 
about  the  long-term.  The  reason  for  this 
concern  lies  in  the  fact  that  everything 
Jobs  and  his  team  are  doing  today  is 
based  on  industrial  design,  something 
that  is  often  faddish,  and  even  worse,  it 
can  be  replicated  by  others. 

Apple  should  be  applauded  for 

pushingthe  design  envelope  and 
showing  the  rest  of  the  PC  market  that  it 
is  OK  to  create  products  that  look  cool 
and  are  fun  to  use.  But  soon,  Compaq, 
Dell  and  IBM  are  going  to  realise  that 
their  square,  black  and  beige  boxes  are 
not  going  to  appeal  to  consumers  and 
will  have  to  follow  Apple’s  lead  ifthey 
want  any  part  ofthis  emerging  market. 

When  Steve  Jobs  introduces  a  system 
that  helps  set  Apple  apart  from  its  PC 
brethren,  he  buys  Apple  another  1 8 
months  of  profitability.  But,  if  he  wants 
to  keep  those  consumer  profits  up,  he  is 


going  to  have  to 
keep  new  and 
unique  machines 
coming.  That  puts 
an  amazing  amount 
of  pressure  on  Apple’s 
industrial  design  group. 

Proprietary  software, 
such  as  the  newSherlock  2  in 
the  soon-to-be-released  OS 
9,  can  help  Apple  provide 
some  differentiation,  but 
software  can  only  go  so  far. 
The  PC  market  will 
eventually  provide  similar 
hardware  and  software 
designs,  taking  much  ofthe 
wind  out  of  Apple’s 
marketing  sails.  Apple  users 
are  very  loyal,  but  they  will 
eventually  ask  the  critical 
question:  ‘What  will  you  do 
for  me  next?’ 

Apple  sources  say  that 
the  next  big  priority  is  to 
develop  a  PDA.  At  the  recent 
MacWorld  in  New  York,  the 
booth  that  drew  the  largest 
crowds  besides  Apple’s  own 
was  the  one  showing  the 
Palm  Pilot,  which  now  boasts  a  program 
that  synchronises  with  the  Mac.  But  Mac 
users  want  their  own  PDA. 

Steve  Jobs  killed  Apple’s  Newton 
handheld  shortly  after  rejoining  the 
company.  He  did  not  say  that  he  was 
against  PDAs,  only  that  he  did  not  like 
the  Newton’s  design  and  platform.  So, 
expect  Apple  to  turn  its  design  eye 
towards  creating  a  ‘pocket  Mac’  that  will 
probably  use  the  PalmPilot  OS. 

Other  predictions  are  that  Apple  will 
bring  out  high-end  G3  desktops  in  at 
least  three  colours  by  January.  Today, 
they  come  in  only  teal.  The  company  is 
also  tipped  to  bring  out  an  iMac  with  a 
more  powerful  processor  and  a  17-inch 
display  by  next  January’s  MacWorld. 

Apple  has  to  keep  PCs  at  least  a  year 
behind  when  it  comes  to  creating  unique 
and  stylish  products.  The  danger  is  that 
the  PC  world  will  shake  off  its  stodgy 
ways  and  start  creating  products  that  are 
just  as  cool. 


52 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Dave  Mitchell  reports  on  the  rise  and  rise  of  the  Gigabit 

Thanks  a  billion 


Ethernet  tends  to  get  taken  for  granted  at  a  time  when  all  the 
talk  is  of  Windows  9x,  NT,  Linux,  UNIX,  NetWare  (well, 
sometimes)  and  the  global  march  of  TCP/IP.  It  sits  under  them 
all,  allowing  them  to  span  the  networks  of  offices  and  corporate 
campuses  across  the  world.  Boosts  in  speed  to  1  Gbit/sec  and 
beyond  could  turn  office  work  into  a  multimedia  experience. 


Ethernet  is  a  remarkable 
thing.  Since  it  was  first 
mooted  in  1 973  by  Robert 
Metcalfe,  it  has  become  the 
dominant  networking 
technology,  with  an  estimated 
100  million  interfaces 
installed  worldwide.  And 
during  that  time  the  original 
specification  has  remained 
essentially  intact. 

One  of  its  fastest  growing 
areas  is  in  the  home  and  small 
office,  but  at  the  corporate 
level  Ethernet  has  evolved  to 
meet  the  demands  for  ever 
increasing  bandwidth.  With  a 
few  simple  tweaks,  Fast 
Ethernet  provided  a  ten-fold 
increase  in  speed  over 
standard  Ethernet  and  now 
Gigabit  Ethernet  offers  huge 
pipelines,  capable  of  handling 
one  billion  bits  per  second. 

With  10/100/1000 
Mbit/sec  speeds  on  the 
menu,  Ethernet  has  the 
capacity  to  serve  as  an  end- 
to-end  solution  for  the 
majority  of  networks.  Gigabit 
Ethernet  is  used  mostly  at  the 
backbone,  where  switch-to- 
switch  connections  over 


optical  fibre  are  used  to  link 
buildings  and  departments. 

Gigabit  network  interface 
cards  (NICs)  are  also  used  to 
link  machines  within  server 
farms,  and  connect  them  to 
the  network.  3Com  and  Intel, 
among  others,  produce  PCI- 
based  Gigabit  Ethernet  NICs 
that  support  all  major 
network  operating  systems. 
Gigabit  Ethernet  switches  are 
currently  too  expensive  to 
warrant  moving  them  closer 
to  the  desktop,  so  most  users 
still  connect  at  1 0Mbps. 
However,  prices  will  eventually 
drop,  allowing  Gigabit 
Ethernet  to  take  over  most 
switching  functions  on  the 
network,  withl  00Mbps  links 
extending  to  the  desktop. 

The  Institute  of 
Electrical  and  Electronics 
Engineers  (IEEE)  802.3z 


standard  -  approved  last  year 
-  specifies  1 000Mbps 
connections  over  single-mode 
and  multi-mode  fibre 
channels.  The  former,  which 
uses  one  mode  of  light  as  a 
carrier,  can  support  high  data 
rates  over  long  distances; 
while  the  latter  carries 
multiple  modes  of  light 
simultaneously,  each  at  a 
different  reflection  angle 
within  the  core.  Multi-mode 
is  less  costly  but  can  only  be 
used  for  short  distances 
because  of  light  dispersion. 

Currently,  the  multi-mode 
lOOOBaseSX standard  only 
supports 
distances  up 
to  550m, 
while  the 
single-mode 
1 0OOBaseLX 
can  run  to  5km. 
These  limitations 
are  already  being 
overcome,  with 
3Com  expecting  to 
support 


▼  Metcalfe’s 

ORIGINAL  SKETCH 
OUTLINING 


Working  to  avoid  a  nasty  collision 


Some  modifications  were 
required  forthe  collision- 
detection  protocol  (which 
allows  two  machines  to  use 
the  network  at  the  same 
time)  to  function  in  Gigabit 
Ethernet,  without  further 
reducingthe  maximum 
network  diameter  -  the 
greatest  distance  between 
two  connected  nodes. 

Fast  Ethernet  dropped  the 


maximum  diameter  down  to 
200m,  so  Gigabit  Ethernet 
would  require  a  reduction  to 
only  20m  otherwise  a 
transmission  would  reach  its 
destination  before  a  collision 
could  be  detected.  Clearly, 
this  was  unacceptable,  so  for 
half-duplex  operations  the 
minimum  Gigabit  Ethernet 
frame  size  was  increased  to 
51 2  bytes.  By  inserting  a 


carrier  extension  field  into 
smaller  frames,  the  minimum 
transmission  times  are  the 
same  as  a  64  byte  frame  over 
Fast  Ethernet,  so  the  200m 
limitation  can  be  retained. 

Collision  detection  is 
switched  off  for  full  duplex 
operations,  as  separate 
cables  are  used  to  transmit 
and  receive,  so  there  are  no 
such  limitations. 


1 0OOBaseLX  links  of  up  70km 
by  the  end  of  this  year. 

The  lOOOBaseT standard, 
ratified  only  injuly,  supports 
Gigabit  Ethernet  over  copper 
cabling  -  Category  5 
Unshielded  Twisted  Pair 
(UTP).  This  is  important, 
because  structured  cabling 
installed  in  company  offices  is 
difficult  and  expensive  to 
replace.  The  I EEE  says  any 
copper  cabling  that  currently 
supports  Fast  Ethernet  should 
support  Gigabit  Ethernet. 

However,  Category  5 
cabling  installed  before  1 995 
may  contain  non-standard 
hardware,  the  connectors 
being  a  particularly  weak 
point.  Even  dirty  punch-down 
blocks  may  cause  a  problem, 
so  it  is  advisable  to  test  the 
cabling  before  upgrading. 

The  fact  that  Gigabit  is  an 
extension  of  an  established 
specification  is  its  biggest 
advantage  -  it  uses  the  same 
collision-detection  protocol, 
frames  size  and  formats  as 
Ethernet  and  Fast  Ethernet 
[see  box,  left] . 

There  are  already  plenty  of 
tried  and  tested  Gigabit 
Ethernet  products  on  the 
market  and  all  the  major 
players  are  involved,  through 
the  simple  expediency  of 
buying  one  ofthe  numerous 
start-up  companies.  Clearly, 
networking  technologies  are 
i  ncreasing  at  a  far  greater  rate 
than  Moore’s  Law  predicted  - 
with  a  further  ten-fold 
increase  in  performance  over 
Fast  Ethernet  and  all  in  less 
than  two  years. 


2£ 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1998 


network...  with  1 0-Gigabit  on  the  horizon. 

Riding  the  1 0-Gbit  wave  division 


Ifyou  don’t  think  Gigabit 
Ethernet  is  fast  enough 
then  how  about  a  further  ten¬ 
fold  increase  in  speed?  Work 
is  already  underway  on  a 
new  specification  called, 
unsurprisingly,  10-Gigabit 
Ethernet.  The  IEEE  802.3 
HSSG  (High  Speed  Study 
Group)  is  looking  at  ways  of 
shovelling  1 0  billion  bits/sec 
down  fibre-optic  cables. 

One  proposed  method  of 
handling  this  huge  amount  of 
bandwidth  is  wavelength 
division  multiplexing  (WDM), 


which  allows  different 
sources  of  data  to  be  placed 
together  into  a  lightstream  on 
an  optical  fibre. 

Hewlett-Packard  is  already 
utilising  the  technology  for  its 
Spectra  LAN  project.  Instead 
of  creating  a  single  1 0Gbps 
channel,  however,  it  uses 
WDM  to  produce  four 
independent  channels  over 
standard  multi-mode  fibre. 

SpectraLAN  modules  use 
the  latest  VCSELs  (vertical- 
cavity  surface  emitting  lasers) 
with  wavelengths  of  820 


nanometres  (nm),  835nm, 
850nm  and  865nm  to  create 
four  parallel  622Mbps 
channels,  which  are 
multiplexed  together  and 
inserted  into  the  fibre  cable 
using  a  special  mirror.  Once 
VCSELs  have  been  reduced, 
they  can  be  coupled  to  the 
input  face  ofthe  fibre  to  emit 
light  directly  into  the  core. 

At  the  receiving  end,  the 
signals  are  de-multiplexed 
and  sent  to  four  different 
detectors.  So  far,  HP  has 
demonstrated  error-free 


operation  ofSpectraLAN  at 
speeds  of2.5Gbps  and 
4Gbps,  over  distances  of 
500m  and  300m  respectively. 

SpectraLAN  is  one  of  a 
number  of  proposals  put 
forward  for  1 0-Gigabit 
Ethernet,  but  don’t  expect 
any  products  yet.  Standards 
for  both  Fast  and  Gigabit 
Ethernet  took  around  30 
months  to  go  from  initial 
study  to  final  approval,  so  1 0- 
Gigabit  Ethernet  is  unlikely  to 
be  ratified  until  2001 , with 
widespread  adoption  in  2002. 


Ethernet  goes  up  and  ATM 


Gigabit  Ethernet  was  barely  off  the 
drawing  board  before  it  was  hailed 
as  the  death  of  ATM  (asynchronous 
transfer  mode).  Primarily  designed  for 
international  traffic,  ATM  was  brought 
to  the  networking  environment  as  an 
end-to-end  solution  for  LANs  and  WANs 
and  for  its  ability  to  handle  multimedia. 

ATM’s  early  adoption  was  held  back 
severely  by  high  component  costs,  a  lack 
ofcompatibility  between  products  from 
different  vendors  and  slow  ratification  of 
standards.  It  also  suffered  from  a  poor 
perception  as  it  was,  and  still  is, 
fundamentally  different  to  Ethernet. 

ATM  uses  small,  fixed-length  cells 
consisting  of  a  five-byte  header  and  a  48- 
byte  data  payload.  The  header  contains 
information  about  the  path  the  payload 
is  to  take  over  the  network. 

Unlike  Ethernet,  ATM  is  connection- 
based,  so  a  link  between  sending  and 


receiving  stations  must  be  created  before 
any  data  is  transmitted.  This  is  achieved 
by  creating  a  Virtual  Channel  Connection 
(VCC)  between  the  two  end  systems.  The 
VCC  itselfwill  be  one  of  many  contained 
within  a  Virtual  Path  (VP).  So,  for 
example,  a  physical  connection  between 
two  ATM  switches  would  contain  a 
number  ofvirtual  paths  and  within  each 
one  there  would  be  many  virtual  circuits. 
Furthermore,  there  are  two  types  of 
virtual  circuit.  Switched  Virtual  Circuits 
(SVCs)  are  set  up  dynamically  and  broken 
after  usage  has  ceased,  while  Permanent 
Virtual  Circuits  (PVCs)  are  physically 
created  at  the  switches  by  administrators. 

Using  ATM,  Quality  of  Service  (QoS) 
can  be  guaranteed.  During  connection 
set-up,  the  network  is  informed  ofthe 
type  oftraffic  and  the  QoS  required  and 
a  connection  will  only  be  created  ifthe 
bandwidth  can  be  guaranteed. 


aThe  Forerunner 
ASX-4000  ATM 

SWITCH  FROM  FORE 
BOASTS  A  CAPACITY 
OF  40G BIT/SEC 


Whether  Gigabit 

Ethernet  becomes  a  nail  in  ATM’s  coffin 
remains  to  be  seen.  Standards-based 
Gigabit  switches  have  been  available  for 
nearly  a  year  now,  prices  are  significantly 
lower  than  ATM  products  and,  where 
QoS  was  seen  as  an  answer  to  congested 
networks,  many  firms  are  preferring  to 
use  Gigabit  Ethernet’s  extra  bandwidth. 


One  ofthe  cheapest 

methods  of  boosting 
the  performance  of  an 

existing  network  is 
to  implement 
switched 
Ethernet.  This 
reduces  the 
amount  of 
traffic  being 

◄  HP’s  ProCurve 
8000  SWITCH  WILL 
BE  FITTED  WITH  A 

100BaseT  module 


Switching  to 

propagated  across  the  entire 
network  by  creating  virtual 
connections  between  sending  j 

and  receiving  stations,  and  i 

routing  data  only  to  its 
destination.  Ethernet  j 

switches  look  very  similar  j 

to  standard  hubs,  or 
repeaters,  but  have  i 

built-in  intelligence.  j 

The  first  time  a 
transmission  occurs 


high  speeds 

between  two  network  devices, 
the  switch  memorises  and 
stores  their  addresses  in  a 
forwarding  table.  Whenever  a 
frame  of  data  is  received,  the 
switch  checks  the  destination 
address  and  sends  the  data 
only  to  the  port  that  the 
recipient  is  attached  to  - 
effectively  creating  a  virtual 
connection  between  stations. 

Ethernet  switching  is  a 


relatively  cheap  means  of 
improving  network 
performance  and  dual-speed 
switches  that  work  at  both  1 0 
and  1 00Mbps  are  now  in  the 
sub-£2,000  price  range. 

Many  ofthese  products  also 
have  expansion  slots  for 
Gigabit  Ethernet  modules. 
Hewlett-Packard  has  already 
announced  a  lOOOBaseT 
module  for  its  ProCurve 
4000  and  8000  switches  for 
Gigabit  connections  over 
copper  cabling. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


39 


Style  over  content 


Gordon  Laing  is  underwhelmed  by  the  iBook,  despite  its  show-stealing  performance  at  MacWorld. 


Despite  constant  'would  it’  or 
'wouldn’t  it’  rumours,  Apple 
finally  went  public  with  its 
fabled  consumer  iBook  this  summer. 
Anyone  who  missed  interim  CEO  Steve 
Jobs’  keynote  speech  was  left  in  no  doubt 
as  to  the  star  of  the  show  -  posters  of  the 
i  Book  adorned  every  entrance  of  the 
Jacob  KJavits  Convention  Centre,  while 
stadium-sized  banners  hung  within.  And 
why  not?  The  iBook  could  be  to 
notebooks  what  the  iMac  was  to 
desktop  PCs:  attractively  designed, 
consumer-friendly  and,  most  crucially  of 
all,  cheap. 

Well,  relatively  so:  $1 ,599  gets  a  fairly 
hefty  but  well-built  notebook  measuring 
344x294x46mm,  weighing  3kg  and 
claiming  to  offer  an  impressive  six-hour 
battery  life.  The  800x600  pixel  1 2.1  in 
TFT  display  and  the  keyboard  seem 
dwarfed  by  the  wide  clamshell  case 
which  surrounds  them;  at  least  there’s 
plenty  of  room  for  resting  wrists.  The 
carrying  handle  is  an  unexpected  but 
welcome  touch. 

In  raw  specs,  the  iBook  supplies  a 
300MHzG3  processor,  3.2Gb  disk  and 
32Mb  RAM.  The  graphics  are  driven  by  a 
4Mb  ATi  RAGE  mobility  2xAGP  chipset. 
Connectivity-wise,  the  iBook  features 
10/100  Ethernet,  56K  modem  and  a 
single  USB  port;  there’s  also  a  built-in 
24x  CD-ROM  drive,  but  no  floppy. 

There  are  crucial  differences  between 
the  iBook  and  its  more  powerful  G3 
PowerBook  counterparts.  The  latter 
boast  faster  processors,  bigger  screens 
and  greater  custom isabi I ity,  with  a 
PC  Card  slot  and  swappable  drives. 

Where  the  iBook  really  scores  is  with 
its  unique  wireless  connectivity.  Apple 
has  snaked  an  RF  antenna  around  the 
inside  top  ofthe  case,  which 
communicates  with  hardware  access 
points  up  to  1 50ft  away  at  1 1  Mbit/sec, 
using  the  wireless  Ethernet  802.1 1 
standard.  Each  $400  access  point  in  turn 
connects  to  a  phone  point  or  network 
and  can  support  up  to  1 0  iBooks  -  but 
there  were  no  announcements  of  a 
PC  Card  version  for  the  PowerBooks. 
Apple  calls  its  wireless  technology  AirPort 
-  the  same  name  that  Adaptec  uses  for 
its  ill-fated  infra-red  desktop  adaptors. 


The  iMac  has  certainly  changed 
Apple’s  fortunes,  but  it’s  far  from  certain 
that  the  iBookwill  enjoy  a  similar 
success.  It’s  cheap,  but  not  cheap 
enough  to  be  a  no-brainer  purchase,  and 
the  question  remains  whether  consumers 
really  want  a  notebook.  Those  that  do 
can  choose  from  blueberry  or  tangerine 
but  must  wait  until  September,  a  date 
which  could  well  be  too  late  for 
this  year’s  school  buyers. 

Ifthis  piece  seems 
dominated  bythe 
iBook,  it’s  a  fair 
reflection  ofthe 
entire  show. 

There  really  was 
little  else  on  the 
new  product 
front.  So 
saying,  all 
the  usual 
suspects 
were 
showing 
their 
most 
recent 
products, 
such  as 

Adobe  with  its 
Web-sawy  Photoshop  5.5,  but  strangely, 
there  was  no  sign  of  QuarkXPress.  All  in 
all,  the  show  was  dominated  by  Web  and 
video  editing  tools,  with  traditional  print 
tools  hardly  getting  a  look  in. 

■  Highlights 

Following  Epson’s  lead  in  transparent 
coloured  cases  for  its  photo-inkjets, 
Tektronix  showed  a  very  attractive  blue 
version  of  its  Phaser  840  solid-ink  colour 
printer.  Dubbed  the  Designer  Edition,  it 
was  essentially  a  fully  loaded  version  of  a 
plain  840,  with  ColourSync  technology, 

1 200dpi  resolution,  1 28Mb  RAM,  SCSI 
and  10/100  ethernet. 

Also  in  transparent  blue  was  the 
McPiper  cordless  DECT  phone  (using  a 
900MHz  frequency  we  use  for  GSM 
cellphones  in  the  UK).  The  base  connects 
to  the  iMac’s  USB  port,  and  allows  the 
handset  to  access  the  host’s  address 
book.  It  will  even  use  the  iMac  to  make 
voice  notes  or  read  out  messages  to  you. 


SGI  showed  its  wide  aspect 
1 600x1 024  pixel  TFT  monitor,  sold  to 
Mac  users  for  $2,495  with  a  specially 
designed  Number9  graphics  card. 
Traditionally,  TFTs  suffer  from  a  lack  of 
detail  in  the  shadow  and  highlight  areas, 
which  is  a  problem  for  photo  or  video 
editors.  However,  SGI  solves  this  using 
custom  gamma-correction  software; 
although  sadly  this  is  notyet  available 
forthe  Mac  bundle. 

Microsoft  announced  Internet 
Explorer  5  and  OutLook  Express  5 
forthe  Macintosh,  but  only 
demonstrated  the  latter.  Both 
are  expected  this  autumn  and  - 
like  the  current  4.5  versions  - 
will  feature  Mac-specific 
options  missing  on  the 
Windows  product.  The  next 
Mac  Office  is  expected 
mid-2000  and  may  be 
called  Office  2001 . 

Speaking  ofWindows, 
Connectix  demonstrated 
its  Virtual  PC  3.0  software 
emulator,  with  support 
for  IP  sharing,  USB 
(but  not  FireWire), 
betterSBI  6  audio,  and 
AppleScript  support.  The 
company  is  selling  DOS,  Windows  95 
and  Windows  98  versions. 

In  a  similar  fashion  to  the  iMac  driving 
USB  peripheral  development,  the  G3 
desktops  are  doing  the  same  for  FireWire. 
Hard  disks  and  DV  Camcorders  using 
FireWire  interfaces  are  old  hat  -  at  the 
showQPS  previewed  a  $599  FireWire 
DVD-RAM  drive,  while  Mactell  showed 
FireWire  CD/RW,  DAT,  3.5in  MO,  and  a 
$449  Magneto-resistive  MR  drive  which 
swallowed  $22  2.2Gb  cartridges. 

So  a  few  scraps,  but  all  in  all  there  was 
only  one  truly  new  product:  Apple’s 
iBook  (albeit  with  no  competition)  easily 
stole  the  show. 

•*-  Can  style  alone  see  Apple  through? See  Tim 
Bajarin ,  on  page  52. 

Gordon  Laing 


www.apple.com 
www.  mcpiper.  com 
www.sgi.  com/go/flatpanel 
www.  designeredition.  tektronix.  com 


48 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Shhh...  can  you  keep  a  secret?  Gordon  Laing  tells  you  how  to  beat  Intel  at  its  own  game. 

The  truth  is  out  there 


Without  sounding  t ooX-Files, 

I  reckon  there's  some  strange 
stuff  going  on  in  the  world  of 
processors.  I'm  talking  about 
Intel's  Celeron,  a  CPU  full  of 
surprises,  and  one  that  has 
again  accidentally  given  a 
convincing  argument  to  be 
your  chip  of  choice  in  almost  any  configuration. 

But  Celerons  are  cheap  and  nasty,  right?  Surely  a 
reassuringly  expensive  PHI  is  the  way  forward  for  top 
performance?  Well,  the  PHI  (and  PII)  features  four  times 
the  Level  2  cache  -  5 12Kb  vs  128Kb  -  but  the  Celeron's  is 
on-die,  which  means  it  runs  at  the  chip's  core  speed  - 
double  that  of  the  L2  cache  in  the  PII  and  PHI. 

Current  Pills  boast  a  front  side  bus  (FSB)  of 
100MHz  compared  to  the  Celeron's  66MHz,  and 
uniquely  boast  the  additional  Internet  Streaming 
Extensions,  but  does  any  of  it  make  any  difference? 

Take  the  SysMark  benchmarks  used  in  PCW ,  which 
run  an  extremely  broad  range  of  applications  (although 


RESULTING  IN  A  550MHz  CPU 

none  yet  supporting  the  PHI  extensions).  In  June,  PCW 
grouptested  a  load  of  PHI  500s,  which  scored  on  average 
195.  In  September,  the  first  Celeron  500  hit  the  VNU 
Labs,  scoring  185.  Not  a  massive  difference  is  it? 

The  Celeron  effect  is  even  closer  with  mobile 
notebook  processors.  Both  Intel's  mobile  Celeron  and 
PII  processors  run  at  66MHz  externally  and  are  available 
with  identical  clock  speeds.  The  only  difference  is  again 
with  the  L2  cache,  this  time  both  on-die,  but  only  128Kb 
vs  256Kb  for  the  mobile  Celeron  and  PII  respectively. 

PCW  group  tested  six  Celeron  notebooks,  and  one 
running  at  366MHz  scored  132,  the  same  as  a  mobile 
366MHz  PII  reviewed  a  couple  of  months  back.  Yet  there 
is  a  threefold  difference  in  the  cost  of  the  CPU! 

The  PII  and  PHI  range  has  one  other  'superior' 
differentiating  quality  from  the  Celerons,  and  that  is 
support  for  Symmetric  Multi-Processing  (SMP).  This 
allows  you  to  pop  typically  two  or  four  identical  CPUs 
onto  one  motherboard  and  have  them  work  together. 
Your  OS  will  have  to  be  SMP  aware,  which  means  BeOS, 
Linux,  Windows  NT  or  Windows  2000.  SMP-sawy  apps 


include  Adobe  Photoshop  and  even  Quake  Arena  (build 
1.06  onwards);  ID's  John  Carmack  has  suggested  that 
SMP  will  boost  Quake  Arena's  average  performance  by 
20-30  per  cent  and  by  as  much  as  80  per  cent  in  busy 
fight  scenes. 

But  you'll  need  an  expensive  dual  PII  or  PHI  system, 
right?  Well,  wrong  actually.  SMP  support  may  have  been 
disabled  in  the  Celeron,  but  anyone  brave  enough  with 
soldering  irons  and  tiny  drill  bits  can  re-enable  the 
feature.  Tomohiro  Kawada  of  Kikumaru  Technical 
Laboratory  is  the  Web's  recognised  expert  on  such 
matters,  and  his  site  shows  exactly  what's  involved. 

Owners  of  Socket  370  Celerons  can  fit  them  to  cheap 
Slot  1  (Slocket)  adaptors  and  make  the  modifications  to 
these  instead.  Then  again,  why  not  check  out  Abit's  BP-6 
dual  Socket  370  motherboard,  which  seems  to  happily 
support  SMP  with  two  S370  Celerons? 

The  latest  craze  is  to  overclock  SMP  Celerons.  Intel 
may  have  locked  the  clock  multiplier  on  its  recent  chips, 
but  you  can  easily  increase  the  external  FSB  settings.  The 
Socket  370  366MHz  Celeron  uses  a  5.5  times  multiplier 
on  its  recommended  66MHz  FSB.  According 
to  many  hardware  sites,  it  will  happily  run  at 
an  FSB  of  100MHz,  resulting  in  a  550MHz 
CPU.  And  remember,  this  is  one  with  an  L2 
cache  now  running  at  550MHz  (a  550MHz 
PHI  only  runs  its  L2  cache  at  225MHz). 

At  the  time  of  writing,  one  supplier  was  selling  its 
remaining  366MHz  Socket  370  Celerons  for  £47  each 
and  the  Abit  BP-6  board  for  £80;  a  single  PHI  550  would 
cost  you  £439.  According  to  a  number  of  sites  (see 
www.firingsquad.com),  a  pair  of  overclocked  366 
Celerons  outperform  a  pair  of  PHI  500s  running  Quake 
Arena,  at  a  fraction  of  the  cost. 

Windows  2000  will  give  the  mass-market  OS 
support  for  SMP,  and  it's  encouraging  to  see  games  like 
Quake  Arena  make  use  of  dual  processors.  It's  even 
better  to  see  that  with  a  little  effort,  you  can  persuade  a 
pair  of  cheap  Celerons  to  work  together.  Overclocking 
has  traditionally  been  the  realm  of  the  true  hardcore 
experts,  but  there's  nothing  difficult  about  increasing 
the  motherboard's  FSB  from  66MHz  to  100MHz  -  just 
watch  that  pair  of 366  Celerons  ramp  up  to  550MHz 
each,  and  you  won't  even  need  to  buy  exotic  133MHz 
memory.  For  these  reasons  I  invite  you  to  join  me  in  a 
toast  to  the  humble  Celeron  - 1  never  thought  I'd  be  able 
to  afford  more  than  1GHz  of 

dual-processing  power.  gordon@glnow.com 


According  to  many  hardware  sites,  a  Socket  370 
366MHz  Celeron  will  happily  run  at  an  FSB  of  100MHz, 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


The  DTI  is  pushing  ebusiness,  but  Barry  Fox  finds  everyone  passes  the  buck  when  problems  arise. 

Ecommercial  breakdown 


The  British  Government's  DTI 
wants  to  'build  trust  in 
electronic  business  and  make 
the  UK  the  most  ecommerce- 
friendly  nation'.  Nice  idea,  pity 
about  the  reality. 

After  I  reported  that 
CompuServe  subscribers  are  at 
risk  from  scam  messages  -  which  look  official  and  ask  for 
their  password,  credit  card  and  banking  details  -  many 
readers  told  similar  tales.  CompuServe  has  never  been 
willing  or  able  to  explain  why  it  is  powerless  to  trap  the 
scammers  or  block  the  messages.  And  it  is  still  going  on. 

A  user  in  Germany  recently  received  a  message 
which  threatened  to  shut  down  his  account  unless  he 
replied  with  his  banking  details.  'We  are  sorry  for  the 
inconvenience  and  hope  that  you  will  continue  to  enjoy 
CompuServe,'  it  reads,  ending  with  the  note:  'Copyright 
CompuServe  Interactive  Services  Inc.' 

So  I  bundled  up  a  pile  of  evidence  and  sent  it  to 
David  Edmunds,  director  general  of  the  telecomms 


comes  pre-loaded  or  the  PC  has  not  previously  been  set 
up  to  use  another  service.  Freeserve  can  trample  existing 
settings  and  phoning  the  Help  Line  then  costs  50p  a 
minute  (and  it  used  to  be  £1). 

Some  users  are  finding  that  there  is  an  unexpected 
price  to  pay  for  the  free  service.  This  is  caused  by  the 
system  Freeserve  uses  to  allocate  the  'unlimited  email 
addresses'  promised  in  its  adverts.  I  found  out  for  myself 
when  I  belatedly  accessed  my  Freeserve  email  box  and 
found  over  650  messages  waiting,  some  of  them 
megabytes  long.  I  gave  up  downloading  when  I  realised 
that  none  were  meant  for  me. 

The  usual  way  to  allocate  email  addresses  is  to  put 
the  user's  name  ahead  of  the  @  sign,  with  the  host  name 
following.  So  if  I  signed  up  to  AOL,  I'd  be  Fox@AOL,  or 
something  like  Fox  16  if  others  had  got  in  earlier. 

Freeserve  puts  the  user's  name  after  the  @  sign,  so  my 
identifying  address  would  be  @Fox.freeserve.co.uk.  I 
could  then  create  any  number  of  mailboxes,  such  as 
Mum@Fox,  Dad@Fox  and  so  on.  But  if  I  don't  set  up 
mailboxes,  any  messages  sent  to  Barry@Fox,  Fred@Fox, 
etc  will  all  be  delivered  to  me. 

Demon  caters  for  specialist  users  who  are  serious  Thls  1S  the  Pnce  that  y°u  pay  for  privacy. 

Freeserve  does  not  publish  any  list  of  addresses, 

about  the  Internet,  whereas  Freeserve  is  a  BAG  so  there  is  no  way  of  knowing  whether  i  am 

Barry@Fox,  Anyname@Fox  or 

OF  SWEETS  given  away  in  Dixons  stores  Anyname@Foxl6,  unless  I  tell  you.  (All  these 

addresses  are  fictitious,  by  the  way). 

'People  are  trying  to  guess  other  people's  addresses 
and  getting  them  wrong,'  says  a  spokeswoman  for 
Freeserve.  Early  adopters  with  simple  addresses  -  such  as 
@Smith  rather  than  @Smith55  -  are  most  at  risk  of 
receiving  other  people's  email. 

Freeserve*  s  addressing  system  was  modelled  on 
Demon  Internet's,  one  of  the  earliest  ISPs.  After  seven 
years,  Demon  has  250,000  paying  subscribers  but 
doesn't  experience  problems  with  incorrect  delivery. 

The  difference  is  that  Demon  caters  for  specialist 
users  who  are  serious  about  the  Internet  and  can  grasp 
the  mind-bending  address  system,  whereas  Freeserve  is  a 
bag  of  sweets  given  away  in  Dixons  stores.  The  problem 
will  only  get  worse  as  the  user  base  expands.  Dixons  says 
it  is  now  'looking'  at  what  can  be  done.  But  it's  hard  to 
see  how  the  system  can  be  changed,  without  driving 
customers  off  to  the  rival  free  services  that  are  popping 
up  like  mushrooms.  And  that's  when  the  bubble  bursts. 

100131.201@compuserve.com 


watchdog  Oftel.  He  referred  it  to  his  Policy  and  Analysis 
Office,  which  declared  it  had  'no  regulatory  powers'  and 
passed  it  to  the  DTI's  Corporate  and  Consumer  Affairs 
Office,  because  it  is  'responsible  for  implementing  the 
European  Union  Distant  Selling  Directive'. 

I  heard  zilch  from  the  DTI,  and  after  two  ignored 
reminders  raised  the  issue  with  Kim  Howells,  the 
minister  in  charge.  This  finally  produced  a  response  - 
six  months  after  I  raised  it  with  Oftel.  'It's  nothing  to  do 
with  us,'  said  the  DTI.  'You  should  try  the  Home  Office. 
We  can't  forward  the  papers  forwarded  from  Oftel 
because  we  can't  find  any  trace  of  them.' 

Thanks  to  Freeserve,  it's  probably  academic 
anyway,  because  time  is  fast  running  out  for 
CompuServe  and  its  owner  AOL.  They  still  charge  silly 
prices  and  are  struggling  to  find  a  way  to  offer  free  access 
to  some  users,  while  still  charging  others. 

Dixons  has  just  floated  Freeserve  and  made  a  killing. 
In  less  than  a  year,  more  than  one  million  people  have 
signed  on.  When  asked,  I  recommend  it,  but  only  if  it 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Brian  Clegg  wonders  if  business  is  embracing  the  Web  for  entirely  the  wrong  reasons. 

Lest  we  forget... 


There's  only  one  certainty  when 
using  computers  in  business  - 
things  will  turn  out  differently 
from  the  predictions.  This  has 
been  the  case  ever  since  the 
study  commissioned  50  years 
ago  by  Thomas  Watson  Snr  of 
IBM  decided  that  the  world 
would  only  ever  need  a  handful  of  those  new-fangled 
electronic  machines.  Bill  Gates  showed  it  was  still  true  in 
1995  by  getting  it  oh,  so  wrong  about  the  Internet. 

This  unpredictability  also  applies  to  the  benefits  of 
using  computers.  In  the  early  days,  they  were  seen  as  a 
way  of  saving  money  on  people.  Instead,  the  outcome 
was  often  to  perform  the  more  complex  tasks  at  a 
quicker  rate.  After  the  computers  came  in,  the  wage  bills 
would  often  be  just  as  high  (if  differently  distributed), 
but  the  ability  to  process  things  such  as  banking 
transactions  or  airline  tickets  was  much  faster  and 
across  a  global  network. 

There  was  a  rather  different  misguided 
expectation  with  personal  computers.  Many  business 
PCs  were  bought  with  the  idea  that  they  would  enable 
office  workers  to  get  things  done  faster.  While  it's  true 


that,  for  example,  spreadsheets  speeded  up  routine 
calculations,  the  benefits  have  often  been  more  in 
quality  than  in  speed.  In  case  anyone  doubts  the  quality 
claim,  I  keep  within  easy  reach  a  report  I  produced  for  a 
large  company  in  1980.  Typewritten,  with  only  the 
occasional  error,  it  is  accompanied  by  hand-drawn 
graphs.  It's  amazing  how  quickly  we  forget  how  awful 
typewritten  documents  looked. 

But  I  digress.  It's  often  the  case  that  bad  predictions 
are  a  result  of  distraction.  These  exciting,  shiny  toys 
distract  us  from  the  fact  that  computer  systems  are 
actually  computer/human  systems.  It's  the  people  that 
make  things  go  wrong.  Or  rather,  it's  the  way  system 
designers  don't  give  enough  consideration  to  people. 

Right  now,  companies  are  eagerly  jumping  into 
using  computers  and  telecommunications  for  customer 
handling  like  hyperactive  lemmings.  It's  impossible  to 


watch  the  news  these  days  without  hearing  about 
another  call  centre  being  set  up,  or  another  bank 
deciding  to  provide  all  of  its  services  via  the  Web.  I  am 
inundated  with  press  releases  about  ecommerce 
products  and  systems  that  will  control  your  customer 
base  over  the  Net.  But  there's  a  problem.  The 
assumption  these  companies  are  making  is  that  this  is 
a  way  to  save  money.  And  if  that  is  all  they  focus  on,  they 
are  going  to  be  in  trouble. 

The  appeal  of  a  product  or  service  is  generally 
based  on  price,  content,  customer  service,  convenience 
and  brand  loyalty.  It's  often  difficult  to  distinguish 
between  the  products  provided  by  call  centres  and  across 
the  Net  on  price  or  content  or  convenience.  Brands 
remain  important,  but  the  marketplace  is  less  clear  - 
who  would  have  thought  a  few  years  ago  that  we  could 
open  a  savings  account  with  the  Standard  Life  Bank  or 
evenTesco? 

What  remains  is  customer  service.  The  opportunity  is 
there  to  give  great  service,  but  the  horror  stories  that 
abound  about  spending  half  an  hour  ploughing 
through  a  voice  menu,  and  about  emails  that  are  never 
answered,  show  that  many  companies  haven't  yet 
realised  its  importance.  Such  is  the  concentration  on  the 
technology  and  cost  saving  that  precious 
little  thought  is  being  given  to  levels  of 
service  for  these  invisible  customers  - 
customers  who  can't  be  won  over  with  a 
smile.  It's  about  time  businesses  with  remote 
customers  spent  far  less  time  on  technology 
and  a  lot  more  on  people. 

Finally,  I  have  to  admit  to  joining  the  enemy.  I've 
had  lots  of  correspondence  from  readers  who  shared  my 
poor  modem  performance  when  their  second  line  was 
provided  using  a  DACS  box.  Like  them,  I  fought  the  BT 
suggestion  that  the  obvious  solution  was  to  move  to 
Highway  (ISDN).  I  was  one  of  the  lucky  ones  who  got  a 
second  physical  line,  experiencing  a  near  twofold 
increase  in  connection  speed  despite  BT's  protestations 
that  DACS  doesn't  make  any  difference. 

Now,  though,  I've  converted  to  Highway.  The  reason 
being  that  in  my  business  I  use  email  and  the  Web  a  lot; 
and  the  cost  balance  has  finally  swung  across.  The 
deciding  factor  was  the  recent  thunderstorms  that 
trashed  my  modem.  Since  I  had  to  replace  the 
equipment  anyway,  the  expense  didn't  seem  quite  so 
extreme  -  and  anyway,  who  am 

T  .  ,  BrianClegg@cul.co.uk 

I  to  argue  with  an  act  ot  God?  00 


The  opportunity  is  there  to  give  great  customer  service 
but  the  HORROR  STORIES  that  abound  show  that 
many  companies  haven’t  yet  realised  its  importance 


|  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Paul  Smith  decides  that  if  ADSL  won’t  come  to  Mohammed,  it’s  time  to  move  to  a  better  area. 

Moving  experience 


We're  finally  moving.  After 
about  12  months  of  house¬ 
hunting,  gazumping  and  then 
last-minute  haggling  over  price, 
we  are  finally  ready  to  move. 
This  Friday,  in  fact.  For  Del,  it 
represents  the  culmination  of  a 
long-held  desire  to  improve  our 
familial  lot  and  escape  the  confines  of  a  tiny  flat,  made, 
admittedly,  somewhat  tinier  by  the  huge  volume  of  PCs, 
monitors,  printers,  joysticks,  speakers,  software  and 
peripherals  necessary  for  any  decent  Half-Life  setup. 

For  me,  however  -  and  I'd  thank  you  to  keep  this 
to  yourself-  it  represents  something  far  more 
fundamental:  we're  moving  to  an  Asymmetric  Digital 
Subscriber  Line  (ADSL). 

When  BT*s  current  West  London  ADSL  trial  was 
originally  mooted,  I  was  the  first  in  line.  With  only  the 
dear  readers'  interests  at  heart,  I  sought,  and  was 
promised,  inclusion  on  this  trial  on  the  basis  that  I  lived 
in  West  London,  in  W14. 1  was  patient  and  waited  while 


Internet  access.  Well,  we’ll  see 

the  trial  was  delayed.  I  checked  that  it  would  still  be 
going  ahead  and  received  assurances. 

Then  the  day  came  and,  lo  - 1  was  two  blocks  outside 
the  trial  zone.  I  was  gutted.  I  went  to  find  out  what  the 
zone  was  and  have,  since  that  dark  March  day,  subtly 
('But  look  at  the  parking  and  the  schools!  And  look  at 
all  the  butterflies  and  how  sunny  it  is!')  pushed  for  a 
new  property  in  W12.  Bizarrely,  my  scheming  worked. 
She  fell  for  it,  and  on  Friday,  we'll  be  in  the  zone. 

This  is  good  because  it  transpires  that  BT's  trial  isn't 
quite  as  over  as  we'd  hoped.  The  unofficial  roll-out  of 
consumer  ADSL  seems  to  be  slipping.  First,  it  was 
scheduled  for  the  end  of  summer.  Then  October, 
November,  and  now  it  looks  like  early  spring  before 
most  ISPs  will  offer  it. 

At  the  same  time,  the  pricing  waters  have  become 
muddied.  The  trial  is  being  conducted  at  a  flat 
£30-a-month  fee.  This  was  fantastic  news,  as  it  meant 
the  end  of  time-metered  calls,  which  are  the  bane  of 


every  Internet  user.  It  even  sidesteps  data-metering, 
where  you  are  charged  by  how  much  data  you  transmit, 
ostensibly  a  pretty  reasonable  way  of  charging  for 
network  use. 

So  a  flat  fee  is  particularly  chirpy  news.  Given  the 
features  of  ADSL  (quick  primer  -  those  in  the  know  may 
skip  to  end  bracket  -  means  that  ADSL  transfers 
information  at  2Mb  downstream  and  256Kb  back  again 
and  it's  always  on),  bandwidth  should  become  one  of  the 
lesser  problems  of  Internet  access.  Well,  we'll  see. 

Now  it  turns  out  that  the  £30  price  tag  that  was 
originally  quoted  is  actually  somewhere  between  £40 
and  £150.  And  that's  a  wholesale  price  to  the  ISPs,  not 
to  the  consumer.  BT  apparently  forgot  that  there  are 
other  ISPs  besides  BT  Interactive  and  Oftel  had  to 
remind  them.  Whether  that  reminder  was  couched  in 
the  language  of  local-loop  unbundling  has  not  been 
confirmed  by  either  side.  However,  it  may  explain  the 
added  delay  in  rolling  out  the  service,  giving  the  ISPs  an 
extra  90  days  to  prepare. 

By  the  way,  that  256Kb  upstream  speed  may  seem 
fast,  but  actually  it  won't  help  me  with  my 
main  upstream  problem.  It's  the  one  thing 
they  don't  tell  you  about  websites,  when  they 
go  on  about  global  narrowcasting  and  drag- 
and-drop,  wizard-driven  HTML 
development.  And  that  is:  websites  are  a  lot 
of  work.  They  need  constant  attention,  like 
an  infant,  and  the  curious  or  merely  bored 
who  have  visited  my  site  will  know  that  attention  is  not 
what  the  site  has  been  getting. 

Actually,  I  don^t  know  whether  it  is  like  raising  an 
infant  as  that  pleasure  is  still  four  weeks  away.  Those 
with  a  calendar  to  hand  will  note  the  close  connection  of 
our  moving  house  and  our  having  a  baby.  Clearly  this  is 
a  plot  by  someone  to  avoid  having  to  help  move  heavy 
items  of  furniture  but,  be  assured,  dear  reader,  that  your 
vigilant  columnist  will  not  fall  for  such  excuses. 

Everyone  shall  pull  their  weight. 

Everyone  except  Edward,  that  is.  Edward's  constant 
search  for  new,  hot  places  to  sleep  has  been  made  easier 
recently  with  the  hot  weather.  Now  that  it's  raining,  he 
has  found  the  perfect  feline  spot,  on  top  of  a  bank  of 
router,  hubs  and  switches  that,  laughably,  I  use  to 
connect  my  one  running  PC  to  the  ISDN  line.  I  wonder 
if  ADSL  will  prove  as  warm  and  comforting. 

www.paulsmith.com 


Given  the  features  of  ADSL,  bandwidth  should 
become  ONE  OF  THE  LESSER  PROBLEMS  of 


Ml 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


LETTER  OF  THE  MONTH 


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T&XAIM 


TOKYO,  JAPAN 

You  won’t  regret  it. 


Linux  and  the  FAT  farm 

Reading  PCW  over  the  last  few  months,  I  have  taken  issue  with  some  of  your 
reporting  on  Linux.  I  am  the  first  to  admit  that  the  OS  is  not  yet  perfect  and 
has  a  long  way  to  go  before  it  comes  anywhere  near  Microsoft  in  terms  of  ease 
of  use  for  the  first-time  user  and  product  support,  but  I  have  a  few  points. 

First,  a  few  months  ago,  we  were  told  in  one  ofthe  Hands  On  columns  that 
Linux  could  not  support  FAT1 6,  FAT32,  NTFS  or  HPFS.  This  is  quite  wrong. 
FAT16  and  FAT32  have  been  supported  in  the  kernel  for  about  a  year  and  a 
half,  and  HPFS  and  NTFS  are  now  supported.  NTFS  is  only  read-only  at  the 
moment,  although  it  is  work  in  progress. 

Second,  your  review  of  Red  Hat  6.0  may  have  been  factually  correct,  but  I 
was  concerned  that  you  thought  £86  was  expensive  for  an  OS  that  includes  all 
you  probably  need  to  do  anything  you  want  with  a  computer,  except  games. 
This  is  compared  to  the  full  price  of  Microsoft  98  SE  of  £1 60.98,  which  is  just 
an  operating  system  and  is  frequently  prone  to  crashing,  yet  in  your  review  of 
it  there  is  no  mention  ofthe  fact  that  it  is  rather  expensive.  Admittedly,  the 
upgrade  is  cheaper  for  Windows,  but  then  for  Linux  it  is  only  £2  from  the  Linux 
Emporium  (www.polo.demon.co.uk/emporium.html,  notwww.redhat.com  as 
you  said  in  your  review) 

Lastly,  in  the  September  1 999  issue,  we  were  told:  'Macmillan  has  just 
published  a  Linux  version  of  Quake  and  Quake  2.’  Quake  and  Quake  2  have 
been  around  ever  since  the  games  were  first  released  by  Id  Software.  Id  ported 
the  games  to  Linux  because  the  servers  ran  better  under  Linux  rather  than 
Windows,  and  lots  of  people  want  to  play  under  Linux.  In  fact,  the  Quake  3 
test  was  released  on  the  Mac  and  Linux  before  Windows.  In  addition,  many 
other  games  manufacturers  are  porting  games  to  Linux. 

Having  said  that,  I  would  take  this  opportunity  to  congratulate  the 
magazine,  and  Chris  Bidmead  in  particular,  for  the  improving  coverage  of 
Unix  and  Linux. 


Crispin  Flowerday 
South  Croydon 


Speed  demons 

While  engaged  in  a  conversation  in  my 
local  watering  hole  (where  I  have  made 
several  good  friends  solely  from  helping 
fix  problems  on  their  computers)  I  was 
amazed  to  hear  that  two  lads  had  just 
purchased  the  latest  Pentium  III  systems 
for  more  than  £1 ,800  each.  I  say  amazed 
because  having  recently  worked  on  their 
old  ones  (a 
reformat  and 
)  install  of 
58  and  a 
reboot 
re-install 
ofWin95) 
I  know 
exactly 
what 
was  on 
their 


computers.  Each  system  was  a  Pentium  II 
233/266,  with  a  3.2Gb  drive  with 
between  1 .6  and  2.0Gb  free.  The 
computers  were  only  running  software 
such  as  Internet,  games,  Encarta  99, 
Windows  95/98,  so  they  were,  in  fact,  at 
a  resource  level  of  83%  free. 

When  I  asked  why  they  needed  such 
high  power  to  run  stuffyou  could  run 
easily  on  less  powered  machines  than 
they  already  had,  the  amazing  answer 
was  ifwe  all  did  not  need  higher  powered 
machines,  then  manufacturers  would 
not  make  them. 

The  truth  is,  I  think  that  ifwe  did  a 
survey  on  how  many  people  had  an 
upgrade  at  great  cost  to,  say,  the  latest 
Pentium  III,  and  did  not  really  need  one, 
the  sales  figures  would  show  an  amazing 
drop  and  manufacturers  would  not  be  so 
quick  to  bring  out  new  technology  at 
such  an  alarming  rate. 


The  hype  given  to  us  by  the 
manufacturers  is  properly  understood  by 
very  few.  What  difference  is  a  Pentium  III 
going  to  make  to  Mr  Average  running  a 
Pentium  II?  My  pals  have  no  idea  what 
they  have  bought  and,  as  far  as  a  DVD 
is  concerned,  have  no  wish  to  use  it  and 
did  not  even  know  you  can  alter  it  to 
UK/US  films 

But  that  is  exactly  what  the 
manufacturers  want  -  new  hype,  new 
mugs  parting  with  their  money  who  just 
need  to  boast  they  have  a  Pentium  III. 

Dixons,  I  hear,  is  selling  £200  PCs  just 
for  people  who  want  Internet  and  basic 
computer  use.  Quite  frankly,  my  two  pals 
would  have  been  better  off  by  £,1 600  if 
they  had  purchased  one  ofthose. 

Here’s  to  fools  and  technology. 

MrJ  Shingler 
Jjshin666@ic24.net 


66 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •October  1999 


Courtesy  of  Universal  studios 


What  a  monster  of  a  special  effect 

Michael  Hewitt’s 
column  about  CGI 
special  effects  in  horror 
films  in  the  September 
issue  was  spot  on.  I  am 
a  big  fan  of  the  old 
To  ho  Godzilla  films 
from  the  50s,  60s  and 
70s,  and  although  I 
did  enjoy  the  1 998 
version,  it  can’t 
compare.  The  old  films 
were  not  really  horror 
films,  they  were  more 
fantasy,  and  who  can 
honestly  say  they  don’t  find  two  men  in  rubber  suits  wrestling  funny? 

The  1 998  film  was  trying  to  be  a  horror  film  and  Michael  Hewitt’s  comments 
about  in-your-face  effects  over  suspense  were  bang  on.  CGI  should  be  used  only 
in  sci-fi  films  where  it  is  needed,  and  sparingly  at  that. 

Neil  Thomas 
neil.  tho  mas  @vir  gin.  ne  t 

Mike  Hewitt  got  it  seriously  wrong  in  his  Sounding  Off  column  in  the  September 
Issue  of  PCW.  At  his  age,  did  he  really  expect  to  be  a  little  bit  frightened  by  the 
film  The  Mummy?  Would  the  likes  of  Boris  Karloff  and  Vincent  Price  still  seem  as 
bottom-clenchingly  good  today?  Personally,  I  think  not.  Did  Hewitt  borrow  a 
child  to  watch  the  film?  My  daughter,  who  is  1 2,  spent  30  per  cent  of  her  time 
hiding  behind  her  popcorn.  She  knew  it  wasn’t  real,  she  guessed  it  was  computer 
effects,  but  for  her  and  many  others  of  her  generation  it  happened. 

Mike,  you  should  be  thankful  that  you  found  it  at  least  Very  clever’.  Me,  I  went 
with  my  family  to  be  entertained,  not  fooled.  My  daughter  had  a  great  time  and 
maybe,  just  maybe  that  was  good  enough  me. 

D  Russell 

russ.d@koan.de 


Free  and  useless 


I  seem  to  be  getting  more  than  my 
fair  share  of 'unable  to  establish  a 
connection’  messages  from  Freeserve 
so  as  a  new  shareholder,  can  I  look 
upon  these  missed  hits  as  a  useful 
source  of  future  dividend  income? 

My  modem  happily  calls  up 
Freeserve,  which  promptly  replies 
with  a  happy  whistle.  A  tuneful 
dialog  then  commences,  which 
checks  IDs  and  passwords.  Great! 

But  very  frequently,  Freeserve 
responds  with  an  'unable  to  estb...’ 
message  and  disconnects,  whistling  a 
happy  'next  please’  as  the  door  is 
slammed  in  my  poor  modem’s  face. 

Uncharitable  thoughts  are  passing 
through  what  Bill  has  left  of  my 
addled  brain.  Does  Freeserve  get  a 
cut  from  BT  for  these  contacts?  Is  it 
a  handy  way  for  Freeserve  to  raise 
funds  and  impress  prospective  invest¬ 
ing  punters?  As  a  bit-part  owner  of 
Freeserve,  should  I  encourage 
increased  use  of  this  money-spinner 
and  quietly  slide  off  to  some  other 
ISP  which  has  not  yet  cottoned  on  to 
this  scam?  Have  they  all  cottoned  on? 
Or  have  I  got  this  all  wrong? 

DG  Kingston 
David@kingston6.freeserve.co.uk 

Clive  Akass  replies  >  ^e’ve 

i  had 

similar  complaints  about  other  service 
providers.  They  do  indeed  make  money  on 
your  extra  calls.  Looks  likes  the  problem 
will  be  with  us  until  we  all  get  always-on 
services  like  cable  or  ADSL. 


Running  on  MD 

'Feeling  all  MD  inside’  by  Paul  Smith 
(August  1999)  was  interesting,  but 
it  did  contain  several  misleading 
statements. 

Smith  states  that  MP3  can  'squeeze 
CD  tracks  into  about  a  tenth  of  their 
former  selves  without  any  loss  of 
quality’.  To  anyone  with  any  reasonable 
sense  of  hearing,  this  is  obviously  false. 
MP3  is  a  lossy  compression  technique 
and  MP3  files,  compressed  at 
1 28Kbits/sec  to  give  11:1  compression, 
do  exhibit  some  distortion  and  loss  of 
quality.  For  a  simple  test,  try  listening 
to  a  piano  piece  both  before  and  after 
compression. 


Later  on,  Smith  again  says:  'Indeed, 
you  can  record  digitally  end-to-end  if 
you  have  a  digital  optical  output  on 
your  sound  card,  so  you  can  make 
perfect  copies  of  either  your  CDs  or 
your  MP3s.’  The  MD  recorder  does 
not  record  uncompressed  data  but 
compresses  about  5:1,  using,  once 
again,  a  lossy  compression  technique. 
Whenever  a  lossy  compression  method 
is  used,  some  loss  of  quality  will 
occur  and  a  prefect  copy  is  impossible 
to  make.  Smith’s  article  misleads 
readers  into  believing  that  the  quality 
of  MP3  or  MD  files  is  higher  than  it 
actually  is. 

Ron  Dwight 
ron@knowledgebase.fi 


Brian  Clegg  replies  >  °"Je 

right  that  both  MD  and  MP3  use  lossy 
compression.  You  are  wrong  however ;  in 
thinking  that  this  implies  loss  of  perceptible 
quality.  Actually ,  there  is  a  huge  amount 
of  redundant  information  —  sound  that 
our  imperfect  ears  would  never  hear  or 
miss  —  that  can  be  removed;  it  is  this  data 
that  these  compression  algorithms  are 
seeking  to  remove. 

I  take  your  point  that  copies  won’t  be 
perfect  in  the  literal  sense  but,  in  terms 
of  portable  MD  and  MP3  players  and  the 
typical  music  played  on  them,  the  copies  are 
perfect  enough.  An  audiophile  with  expensive 
equipment,  listening  to  classical  recordings, 
may  spot  the  difference.  The  rest  of  us 
won’t  notice.  ^ 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


SL 


Why  Unix  has  become  extra-sensitive 


I  couldn’t  agree  more  with  Brian  Clegg’s  comments  ( PCW , 
September  1 999)  on  the  importance  of  usability  of  software, 
and  that  usability  should  be  the  prime  concern  and  driving 
force  of  software  design. 

Conversely,  while  I  just  get  bored  by  arguments  over  which 
operating  system  is  ‘best’,  I  do  think  Clegg  is  attacking  Unix 
on  the  wrong  grounds  over  its  lack  of ‘case-blindness’.  As  a 
mature  operating  system,  it  had  a  lot  to  achieve  within  the 
768Kb  of  a  PDP-1 1/70  (a  minimal  system  could  run  in  96Kb). 
Early  Unix  kernels  consisted  of  around  1 0,000  lines  of  C  code 
plus  1,000  lines  of  assembly  -  it  couldn’t  afford  the  luxury  of 
converting  case  before  comparing  character  strings.  In  fact, 
Richie  and  Thompson,  writing  in  1 978,  were  quite  proud  of 
the  fact  that  Unix  was  developed  in  less  than  two  man-years 


and  could  run  on  hardware  ‘costing  as  little  as  $40,000’. 

As  for  Unix  now,  I’ve  no  idea,  but  coming  from  that 
background,  perhaps  too  many  things  have  come  to 
depend  on  that  case  sensitivity  to  be  able  to  change  it.  On 
the  other  hand,  perhaps  its  devotees  simply  wouldn’t  have  it 
any  other  way... 

Chris  Veness 
chrisv@movable-type.co.uk 

Brian  Clegg  replies  > 

I  accept  absolutely  that  Unix  made  sense  20  years  ago ,  but  things 
have  moved  on  and  it’s  no  longer  just  the  cognoscenti  that  are 
exposed  to  it ,  hence  the  argument!  Thanks  for  writing. 


We’re  all  on  the  Unix  case 


I  felt  compelled  to  rise  to  Brian  Clegg’s 
challenge  to  explain  what  benefit  case 
sensitivity  has  in  the  Unix  operating 
system  (PCW,  September  1 999). 

The  answer  is  buried  deep  in  the  roots 
of  the  origin  of  the  operating  system. 
The  user  interface  is,  uniquely,  also 
a  programming  language  in  its 
own  right. 


This  is  unusual  enough 
today,  but  in  the  70s  it  was  revolutionary. 
Can  you  think  ofone  programming 
language  that  is  not  case-sensitive?  Bear 
in  mind  the  entire  Unix  OS  works  on  case 
sensitivity,  not  just  filenames.  Also, 
remember  that  Unix  and  its  user  interface 
(running  on  minimal  hardware)  were 
designed  to  be  slick  and  quick. 


As  for  passwords,  all  it  takes  is 
someone  to  put  the  first,  last  or  perhaps 
the  penultimate  character  in  their 
password  as  upper-case  (or  lower  ifall 
the  rest  is  in  upper)  to  make  it  easy 
enough  to  remember.  And  yet  it  is  so 

much  harder  for  someone 
to  crack.  If  people  can’t 
actually  remember  to  do 
this,  how  do  they  manage 
to  rememberto  use  their 
applications?  They  must 
have  memories  like 
goldfish. 

So  the  benefit  to 
humankind?  Tight, 
robust  code  which 
works  a  treat.  Unix  all 
over,  really. 

I  agree  that  the 
operating  system 
was  developed  by, 
and  intended  for, 
human  beings.  But 
more  precisely,  it 
was  developed 
by  intelligent, 
computer-literate 
people  for 
intelligent,  computer-literate 
people  (or  at  least  intelligent  people). 
Now,  99.9%  of  the  Web  is  run  by  Unix 
servers  because  it  stays  up  for  months 
and  sometimes  years  at  a  time  without 
reboots,  and  because  it  does  what  it  says 
it  will  do  and  works  when  it  matters.  If 
you  want  something  that  guides  you  by 
the  hand  with  cotton  gloves  on,  try 
Microsoft’s  IIS.  As  long  as  you  don’t 
mind  the  constant  reboots/crashes  and 


everyone  else  having  access  to  your  data 
that  shouldn’t,  you  should  find  the  whole 
thing  a  breeze. 

Keith  Grant 
Keefer@clara.co.uk 

Brian  Clegg  replies  > 

keeping  Unix  lean  and  mean  20  years  ago 
made  sense ,  but  Td  now  argue  that  it  isn’t  fit 
for  exposure  to  human  beings  (as  opposed  to 
programmers)  until  it  stops  imposing  its  case 
sensitivity  on  the  world.  People  simply  don’t 
work  that  way  and  it  is  lazy  programming  to 
expect  the  user  to  do  the  work  rather  than  the 
computer;  that’s  why  we  buy  them ,  after  all. 

I  think  there  are  several  languages  that  aren’t 
case-sensitive  as  far  as  variables  go.  I  don’t 
think  Algol  is  and  I  know  Basic  isn’t  (although 
I  suppose  you’d  argue  that’s  not  a  language). 
Unix  is  reliable  and  I  love  its  reliability ,  but 
that’s  no  reason  to  be  unfriendly. 

I’ll  never  be  won  over  on  the  password 
issue.  You  can’t  expect  people  to  know 
what  case  they’re  typing  when  they  don’t 
get  an  echo.  Mixed  case  passwords  would 
only  be  valid  if  you  had  mixed  case  echo 
characters ,  I  think. 


I  loved  Brian  Clegg’s  comments  (PCW, 
September  1 999)  about  the  helpful 
software  that  explains  that:  ‘You  are  in 
reporting  mode;  to  do  this  you  should 
be  in  entry  mode.” 

My  favourite  example  was  in  the 
Focus  database  software  that  ran  on  a 
Vax.  Ifyou  typed  ‘Quit’  to  leave  the 
program,  you  received  the  helpful 
message:  ‘Type  Exit  to  quit  Focus!’ 

John  Hollerton 


68 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


compiled  by  Nik  Rawlinson 


iSee  iBook  iMminently 


The  iMac  was  a  big  hit,  and  Apple  is  hoping  to  repeat  the 
success  with  the  imminent  release  of  the  iBook,  of  which  this  is 
one  of  the  first  pictures.  It  features  a  12.1  in  TFT  display,  a  300MHz 
PowerPC  G3  microprocessor,  built-in  56l<  modem  and  10/100Base-T 
Ethernet  networking,  built-in  CD-ROM  drive,  two  built-in  antennas  and 
an  internal  slot  to  accept  Apple’s  new  AirPort  wireless  networking  card. 
Oh  yes,  and  still  no  floppy. 

Contact  Apple  0870  600  6010 
www.apple.com/uk 

Price  $1,599  when  released  in  the  US  this  September 


Snap  happy 


It’s  only  a  couple  of  months  since  we  were 
wowing  at  the  first  two-megapixel  cameras,  but 
now  Fujifilm  has  upped  the  ante  with  this 
2.3-megapixel  model.  Taking  photos  at  a 
stunning  1 800x1 200  resolution,  it  will  fill 
even  the  largest  of  screens  and  scale  down  to 
produce  regular-sized  prints  -  just  like  the 
developer  would  do. 

Contact  Fujifilm  0171  586  5900 

www.fujifilm.co.uk 
Price  £699.99  (£595.74  ex  VAT) 


Joy...  on  a  stick 


jginners  have  everything,  and  now  that  even  extends  to  their  own  joystick.  Gravis 
assures  us  that  the  Destroyer  ‘enables  new  game  players  to  focus  on  learning  the  game  rather 
than  programming  the  joystick’.  Perhaps  the  best  thing  about  it,  though,  is  that  the  stick’s 
symmetrical  design  makes  it  equally  suited  to  both  left-handed  and  right-handed  gameplay- 
something  few  of  its  competitors  can  boast. 

Contact  Gravis  0800  252359 
www.gravis.com 
rice  £9.99  (£8.50  ex  VAT) 


Project  yourself 


At  just  4.3kg,  the  snappily  named  PLCXU10  is  one  of  the  lightest 
projectors  on  the  market.  It  can  also  run  without  being  connected  to  a 
PC  -  simply  download  your  presentation  onto  a  SmartMedia  card  and 
slip  it  into  the  slot  on  the  side.  A  top  resolution  of  1 024  x  768 
and  an  image  throw  of  up  to  1 4.1  m  earn  it  a  thumbs  up 
in  the  PCW office. 

Contact  Sanyo  01 923  477221 
www.sanyo.co.uk 
Price  Available  on  application 


m 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Sudden  surges  -  stopped! 


Surge  protection  devices  get  smaller  every  month,  and  this  month  we  have 
what  we  think  is  the  smallest  yet,  the  Surge  Stop.  Anything  from  a  lightning 
strike  to  everyday  fluorescent  lighting  can  cause  surges,  but  this  handy  little 
device  can  keep  your  notebook  safe  whether  you’re  at  home  or  away. 

Contact  Teleadapt  0181  233  3000 

www.teleadapt.com 

Price  £1 4.09  (£1 1 .99  ex  VAT) 


Her  name  is  Rio 


The  original  Rio  was  a  hit  with  PC-owning  music  fans  nationwide,  and  now  it’s  been 
upgraded  to  become  the  cool  see-through  teal-blue  PMP300.  It’s  not  battery- 
hungry,  running  for  an  impressive  12  hours  on  a  single  AA  cell,  it  doesn’t  skip 
like  a  tape  or  CD,  and,  being  smaller  than  a  cassette,  it  will  easily  fit  in 
your  pocket  so  you  can  listen  while  you  jog.  Check  out  our  full 
review  on  p88. 

Contact  Diamond  Multimedia  01 1 89  444400 

www.diamondmm.com 

Price  PMP300  SE  £1 56.22,  headphone  £1 2.47, 
leather  case  £1 8.72,  2x1 6Mb  flash  £62.47, 
import  duty  £63.73;  total  £  31 3.61 


Talk  talk 

The  Quest  looks  like  a  dictation  machine,  but  it’s  also  an  organiser.  Your 
vocal  notes  can  be  organised  into  individual  voice  folders  and  you  can  even  use 
it  to  create  voice  email  for  network  delivery.  Dropping  it  into  the  docking 
station  means  that  just  like  a  Palm  organiser,  you’ll  be  able  to 
synchronise  it  with  your  PC  data. 

Contact  Dictaphone  01 926  821111 
www.dictaphone.com 
Price  £249.99  (£21 2.76  ex  VAT) 


We  think  the  new  WebCam  III  from  Creative  looks  a  little  like  a  boxy  dog.  It’s 
an  upgrade  to  the  egg-shaped  WebCam  II,  and  this  time  around  you’ll  find  a 
USB  connection  at  the  end  of  its  generous  6ft  lead.  We  put  it  to  the  test  this 
month  and  you  can  find  out  what  we  thought  on  p82. 

Contact  Creative  Labs  0118  934  4322 

www.cle.creaf.com 

Price  £69  (£58.73  ex  VAT) 


All-seeing  eye 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


21 


Using  a  regular  digital  camera  to  put  your  mug  on  the 
net  has  become  somewhat  old  hat.  With  faster  net 
connections  and  new  streaming  technologies,  what 
people  want  now  is  full  colour  digital  motion,  and  this  month 
we  take  a  look  at  two  products  that  make  this  easy  -  the 
WebCam  III  from  Creative  Labs  [ pictured ,  right]  and  Sharp's 
Internet  Viewcam,  which  made  a  brief  appearance  in  our  Gadgets 
section  a  couple  of  months  back  but  is  now  available  to  buy  and  so  returns 
for  a  full  review.  We  also  feature  what  has  to  be  one  of  the  cheapest  PC 
upgrades  ever  -  a  tenner  will  now  buy  you  an  IRDA  port  for  the  back  of  your  desktop 
machine.  Why  should  it  be  just  your  PDA,  notebook  and  phone  that  can  take  advantage 
of  wireless  communications  these  days?  We're  also  going  wireless  on  the 
networking  front.  We  take  a  look  at  two  wireless-networking  solutions 
that  are  ideal  for  use  in  the  home  or  a  small  office.  One  of  the  most 
desirable  looking  products  to  enter  the  office  this  month  was  the 
EaSyMate  from  Packard  Bell  [left].  See 
whether  this,  and  a  couple  of  dozen  other 
products,  lived  up  to  our  expectations. 


VNU  European 
Labs 


Nik  Rawlinson,  Reviews  Editor 

nik_rawlinson  @vnu.  co.  uk 


Contents 


NEW  PRODUCTS 

73  Dell  Dimension  XPXT600 

74  IBM  ThinkPad  570 

75  Sharp  PC-A250  Ultra  Lite 
77  Metacreations  Poser  4 
79  SonyVaio  PCG-F290 

82  CreativeLabs  WebCam  III 
82  Adaptec  Easy  CD  Creator  4 
84  Philips  FreeSpeech  2000 

84  ModularTechnology 
PCTVTuner 

86  Packard  Bell  EasyMate  800 

87  Borland  JBuilder  3 

88  Sharp  VN-EZ1 

88  Diamond  Rio  PMP300  SE 


92  Proxim  Symphony  and 
Diamond  Homefree 

93  Sound  System  DMXks 
Montego  II  Quadzilla 

96  Coda  Finale  Allegro 
98  Hewlett  Packard  DeskJet  81 5C 
98  Infra-red  for  desktops 
101  Compaq  Armada  1  750 
101  Mag  LT561  ETFT 

103  Mediator  5  Pro  Edition 

104  TMCTI6VG4  motherboard 
104  Elsa  Microlink  Office 


HEAD  TO  HEAD 

110  Visual  Web  editing  i/s 
hand-rolled  HTML 


VNU  Labs  tests  all 
kinds  of  hardware 
and  software,  from 
PCs  to  modems  to 
databases.  All  our 
tests  simulate  real-world  use 
and  for  the  most  part  are 
based  on  industry-standard 
applications  such  as  Word, 
Excel,  PageMaker  and 
Paradox.  Our  current  PC  tests 
for  both  Windows  95  and  NT 
are  the  SYSmark  tests  from 
BAPCo.  In  all  our  performance 
graphs,  larger  bars  mean 
better  scores. 


Ratings 


Buy  while  stocks  last 
★★★★  Great  buy 
★★★  Good  buy 
★★  Shop  around 
^  Not  recommended 


22 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Dell  Dimension  XPX  T600 

Power  for  the  professional 


For  those  who  remain 
stubbornly  loyal  to  the  Intel 
Inside  sticker,  this  high-end 
PC  is  a  gamer’s  dream. 

Dell  is  the  last  of  the  major  PC 
manufacturers  to  base  its 
systems  solely  on  Intel 
processors.  So  it  is  no  surprise  that  the 
company  has  been  quick  to  adopt  Intel’s 
latest  chip,  the  600M Hz  Pentium  III.  Dell 
has  taken  care  to  keep  this  processor 
cool  by  installing  a  very  large  fan  directly 
behind  it.  There’s  also  a  cowling  that 
flows  the  air  directly  over  the  processor. 

The  CPU  resides  in  an  ATX 
motherboard,  based  on  the  440BX 
chipset.  Two  of  the  three  DIMM  sockets 
are  filled  with  an  impressive  256Mb  of 
PCI  00  SDRAM.  The  board  also  sports 
five  PCI  slots,  along  with  one  ISA  and 
the  AGP  slot. 

Occupying  the  AGP  slot  is  a  Diamond 
Viper  V770  graphics  card,  based  on  the 
nVIDIA  Riva TNT2  chipset.  With  32Mb 
of  memory,  no  resolution  or  colour 
depth  should  be  out  ofyour  reach,  in  2D 
or  3D  applications.  With  the  exception 
of  hardware  bump-mapping,  this  card 
supports  just  about  every  3D 
feature,  so  if  3D  gaming 


is  what  you’re  after,  you  won’t  be 
disappointed.  Unfortunately,  the 
monitor  can’t  show  the  graphics  card  off 
to  its  full  effect.  Although  there’s  nothing 
intrinsically  wrong  with  the  1 9in 
Dell-badged  display,  we  expected 
something  a  little  better  considering  the 
high  specification  ofthe  system.  The 
image  is  well  focused  across  the  whole 
surface  ofthe  display,  but  the  screen  is 
noticeably  rounded,  especially  when 
compared  to  the  latest  flat  CRTs  that 
have  become 
popular  of  late. 

The  OSD  is  fairly 
intuitive,  using  a 
rotating  dial  for 
adjustments. 

A  SoundBlaster  Live!  Value  card  fills 
one  ofthe  PCI  slots.  This  is  a  good  sound 
card,  although  the  Value  version  lacks 
the  daughter  card  with  the  digital  in  and 
out  ports.  This  is  a  particular  problem 
considering  Dell  has  included  a  set  of 
Altec  Lansing  ADA880  speakers,  a  top 
notch  speaker  package  with  a  built-in 
Dolby  Digital  decoder.  The  massive 
subwoofer  has  an  SP/DIF  input  to 
receive  the  digital  signal  carrying 
the  Dolby  Digital  information. 
Unfortunately,  Dell  hasn’t  included  an 
MPEG2  decoder  card  ora 

sound  card  with 
an  SP/DIF 
output,  so  the 
speakers  can’t  be 
used  to  their  full 
effect.  That 
said,  ifyou 
ever  decide 
to  add  a 
decoder 
card,  you’re 
set  for  a 
surround 
sound  treat. 
The 

speakers 
come  with  an 
infra-red  remote  control 
to  make  movie  watching 
even  easier.  The  only 
other  expansion  card 
is  a  US  Robotics 
V.90  PCI  modem. 


Mounted  vertically  at  the  front  ofthe 
system  case  is  a  20Gb  Maxtor  hard  drive. 
You’re  not  likely  to  run  out  of  storage  in  a 
hurry,  but  ifyou  do  need  to  transport  or 
safeguard  data,  there’s  a  250Mb  Iomega 
Zip  drive.  The  third  EIDE  device  is  a  6x 
Toshiba  DVD-ROM  drive  that  reads 
CD-ROMs  at  32x. 

The  keyboard  is  a  Dell-badged  model 
with  good  travel  and  break,  making  it 
easy  to  achieve  a  decent  rate  of  typing, 
while  a  Microsoft  Intellimouse  takes  care 
of  pointer 
manipulation. 

Rounding  off 
the  package  is  a 
copy  of  Microsoft 
Office  2000 
Small  Business 
Edition.  Since  MS  Office  is  the  premium 
productivity  suite,  it’s  a  commendable 
inclusion  with  any  PC. 

The  Dell  didn’t  perform  quite  as  well 
as  last  month’s  Panrix  Fusion  600, 
turning  in  a  SYSmark  score  of  233  and  a 
3DMarl<  result  of 4277.  That  said,  at 
£1 ,649  ex  VAT,  it’s  considerably  cheaper 
than  the  Panrix. 

The  Dimension  T600  is  a  pretty  good 
package  and  fair  value  for  money.  With 
the  exception  ofthe  mismatched  sound 
card  and  speakers,  the  components  gel. 

If  AMD’s  Athlon  can’t  sway  you  from 
Intel,  this  Dell  should  suit  your  needs. 

Riyad  Emeran 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★★ 

Price  £1,937.57  (£1,649  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Dell  0870  152  4850 

www.dell.co.uk 

Good  Points  Good  specification  and 

reasonable  price 

Bad  Points  Poor  pairing  of speakers  and 

sound  card 

Conclusion  An  impressive  600MHz 

Pentium  III  machine  at  an  attractive  price 


Microsoft  Office  2000 
Small  Business  Edition 
rounds  off  the  package 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


za 


NEW  PRODUC 


IBM  ThinkPad  570 

Top-notch  notebook 


Versatile,  functional  and 
light,  this  notebook  is  the 
perfect  weapon  if  you  are 
tad  warrior. 


an  IBM  roa< 


IBM  is  very  clear  about  how  it 
categorises  notebook  users.  The 
company  has  all-singing,  all-dancing 
desktop  replacements  aimed  at  well 
financed  desk-bound  workers,  budget 
notebooks  aimed  at  the  humble  sales 
force  and  finally  -  the  jewel  in  IBM’s 
crown  -  thin  and  light  notebooks 
aimed  at  a  user  IBM  describes  as  a 
road  warrior.  As  these  users  are 
constantly  travelling,  all  they  need  to 
do  is  check  email,  give  presentations  and 
do  a  little  spreadsheet  and  word 
processing  work. 

IBM’s  first  offering  in  this  arena, 
three  years  ago,  was  the  560.  This 
notebook  was  one  of  the  first  thin  and 
lights,  and  had  minimal  drives. 

The  570  recognises  that  while 
road  warriors  do  not  want  to 
carry  much  with  them,  they  need  to 
have  access  to  other  drives,  such  as  a 
CD-ROM,  Zip  drive  or  DVD. 

The  original  560  had  an  external 
floppy  and  an  optional  external  CD 
drive,  and  the  new  570  is  no  different, 
with  only  the  external  floppy  as  standard. 
The  most  important  improvement  in  the 
570  is  the  UltraBase,  IBM’s  name  for  its 
docking  station.  With  this  comes  all  the 
added  functionality  -  two  swappable 
UltraSlim  bays  capable  of  holding 
CD-ROM  and  DVD-ROM  drives,  LS-120 
and  Zip  storage  devices  and  an  extra 
hard  disk.  Ifyou 
need  to  increase 
the  battery  life, 
the  UltraBase  wi 
hold  a  second 
battery.  It  even 
has  a  midi  port  attached  for  those 
corporate  stress  relievers  -  games. 
However  this  option  is  not  cheap, 
costing  a  further  £1 02  ex  VAT  before  you 
even  start  putting  in  any  drives.  And 
there  is  no  built-in  network  capacity,  so 
you  will  have  to  use  a  PCMCIA  Ethernet 
card  to  connect  when  you  do  hit  base. 

TheThinkPad  570  is  certainly 
lightweight  and  packed  full  of 


functionality.  At  on 
28mm  thick  and 
weighingjust 
1 .8kg,  it  fits 
the  bill 
perfectly 
for  the 


Once  out  of  the  office 
battery  life  takes  on  a 
new  importance 


traveller. 

Under  the  shell  are  a 
number  of  good 

components.  Powered  bya366MHz 
Intel  Mobile  Pentium  II,  it’s  as  fast  as 
you’re  likely  to  need  in  the  workplace. 
With  64Mb  ofSDRAM,  upgradable  to  a 
maximum  1 92Mb,  plus  a  6.4Gb  IDE 
hard  drive,  the  570  sits  comfortably  at 
the  top  end  of  the  notebook  ladder. 

The  13.3in  TFT  screen  is  impressive, 
with  a  resolution  of  1 024x768,  and  is 
capable  of  driving  an  external  display  at 
the  same  resolution.  The  ultra-slim 

nature  ofthe  570 
is  evident  here  - 
the  casing  behind 
the  screen  is  quite 
thin  and  any 
pressure  is 
evident  on  the  active-matrix  display. 

The  570  uses  the  NeoMagic 
MagicMedia  256AV graphics  chipset,  as 
favoured  by  many  notebooks,  and  the 
1 6-bit  SoundBlaster  compatible  Crystal 
CS4280  audio  chipset. 

Any  notebook  worth  its  salt  has  a 
variety  of  ports  for  adding  peripherals. 
The  usual  suspects  are  included  on  the 
570  -  twoType  II  (or  oneType  III)  PC 


card  slots,  one  USB 
port,  one  COM 
port,  one  parallel 
port  and  one  PS/2 
socket,  as  well  as  an  IrDA 
compatible  infra-red  port, 
the  usual  Mic,  line-in  and 
headphone  jacks,  and  a  telephone 
jack  for  the  integrated  56 Kbit/sec 
modem.  The  keyboard  is  easy  to  use 
and  theTrackPoint  is  responsive. 

Under  the  SYSmark  98  tests, 

performance  was  comparable 
to  a  machine  of  similar 
specifications. 
Out  ofthe 
office, 
battery 
life  has  new 
importance. 

The  570  has  a 
lightweight  Lithium  Ion 
battery,  with  an  estimated  life  of 
three  hours  and  similar  charge  time.  This 
will  increase  to  a  claimed  seven  hours  if 
you  use  the  second  battery.  Lotus 
SmartSuite  Millennium  and  Norton 
Mobile  Essentials  are  included. 

IBM  seems  to  have  sat  on  its  laurels 
with  this  machine.  It  has  recognised  that 
users  need  the  flexibility  offered  by  the 
UltraBase,  but  compared  to  other 
notebooks  available,  the  base  model  570 
is  under-specified  and  over-priced. 

Jim  Haryott 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★★ 

Price  £3,084.37 ( £2,625 ex  VAT),  £1 18.67 
(£101  ex  VAT)  for  UltraBase,  £1 19.85 
(£102  ex  VAT)  for24x  CD-ROM  drive 
Contact  IBM  0870  601  0136 

www.ibm.com 

Good  Points  Size,  weight  and  functionality 
Bad  Points  Price ,  basic  package  would 
need  additions 

Conclusion  A  lovely  notebook  -  slim , 
portable  and  powerful but  adding  the  extras 
that  other  manufacturers  may  include  as 
standard  makes  it  very  expensive 


24 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Sharp  PC-A250  UltraLite 

Sub-notebook 


Great  looks  and  a  screen 
to  die  for  make  the  Sharp 
A250  a  highly  desirable 
travelling  companion. 

Tiny,  sleek  and  extremely 

attractive,  the  Sharp  PC-A250 
certainly  turns  heads.  Measuring 
just  262x21  Ox  22mm,  it  fits  into  that 
category  of  sub-notebooks  that  run  a  full 
version  ofWindows  98,  but  are  only 
marginally  bigger  than  the  larger 
Windows  CE  devices.  Sub-notebooks 
have  the  advantage  of  being  very  small 
and  light,  but  can  also  run  any 
application  you  need,  although  the 
downside  is  that  the  battery  life  is 
usually  only  a  couple  of  hours.  However, 
despite  its  size  it  is  well  specified,  with  a 
Pentium  II  300,  64Mb  of  RAM  and  a 
6.4Gb  hard  drive. 

The  most  impressive  component  in 
the  UltraLite  is  the  screen.  Sharp  has 
managed  to  squeeze  an  1 1 .3in  display, 
with  a  resolution  of800x600,  into  this 
small  form  factor  notebook,  but  this 
TFT  is  much  better  than  that  seen  on 
most  other  mobiles  in  its  class. 

The  screen  is  Sharp’s  own,  making 
use  ofthe  company’s  anti-glare  and 
anti-reflective  technology. 

Sharp  claims 
this  makes  the 
screen  50  per 
cent  brighter, 
while 

consuming 
38  percent 
less  power, 
although  it 
does  not  state 
what  it  is 
comparing 
this  screen 
against. 

However, 
the  net 
result 


The  net  result  is  a 
display  which  gives 
an  extremely  bright, 
sharp  image 


display  that  is  very  black  before  it  is 
turned  on  and  gives  an  extremely  bright, 
sharp  image. 

Most  TFT  screens  suffer  from  poor 
colour  representation  and  low 
brightness,  which  makes  them  less  than 
perfect  for  any  graphical  work.  It  also 
produces 
problems  for 
viewing  the 
display  in  certain 
lighting 

conditions,  such 
as  bright  sunlight 
-  a  problem  when 
you  are  likely  to  use  this  notebook  in  any 
number  of  different  locations.  The  screen 
on  this  PC-A250,  however,  is  bright 
enough  to  get  over  most  of  these 
problems  and  has  the  added  advantage 
of  having  a  very  wide  viewing  angle,  so  it 
can  still  be  seen  well  from  the  side. 

All  the  objects  on  the  screen  were 
pin-sharp,  with  no  obvious  fading  or 
unevenness  in  brightness. 

Aside  from  the  hard  drive,  there  are 
no  drives  in  the  chassis.  The  optional 
CD-ROM  drive  connects  via  the  single 
PC  Card  slot.  The  lack  of  an  internal 

modem  means  you 
will  have  to  remove 
your  external  modem 
to  connect  the 
CD-ROM  drive,  but 
unless  you  intend  to 
listen  to  music 
while  on  the  move, 
you  can  probably 
leave  the  CD  drive 
at  home.  The 
external  floppy 
drive  connects  via 
a  proprietary  port 
on  the  side  ofthe 
unit. 

This  drive  is  as 
thick  as  the 
notebook  itself 
and  almost  as 
deep,  so  it  is 
quite  bulky,  but 
it  does  have  the 
advantage  of 
containing  three 
ports  on  the 


back  -  PS/2,  serial  and  parallel.  There  is  a 
single  Type  1 1  PC  Card  slot,  so  you  can’t 
plug  in  Type  III  cards. 

These  extra  ports  on  the  drive  are 
appreciated  because  none  ofthem  are 
present  on  the  notebook.  You  do, 
however,  get  two  USB  ports,  a  VGA 
connector  and  an  Ethernet  port.  Still, 

ifyou  are  using  older 
printers  or  drives, 
such  as  a  Zip  drive, 
you  will  need  to 
daisy-chain  these  off 
the  floppy  drive  -  a 
cludgy  solution. 


The  PC-A250  has  two  batteries,  one 
internal  and  an  optional  external  one, 
which  clips  on  to  the  back  ofthe 
notebook,  as  seen  on  the  Compaq  5100 
a  few  years  ago.  This  time,  however,  it  is 
not  a  carry  handle.  In  fact,  you  would  be 
foolhardy  to  pick  up  the  notebook  by  the 
battery  because  it  is  only  connected  by 
the  flimsiest  of  connectors.  The  battery  is 
only  connected  by  two  plastic  clips, 
which  look  pretty  insubstantial  and  look 
as  though  they  might  break  easily.  There 
is  also  a  chance  that  the  battery  will 
move  and  become  disconnected. 

Welcome  additions  are  the  built-in 
56K  modem  and  the  little  bit  of  suede  on 
the  bottom  ofthe  notebook  to  stop  it 
from  slipping  around  -  a  real  bonus 
when  using  the  notebook  on  a  train. 

Adele  Dyer 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  £2, 1 67. 88  (£1, 845  ex  VAT), 
optional  CD  £235  ( £200  ex  VAT),  extra 
battery  £182.1 3  (£155  ex  VAT),  PC  and 
CD  bundle  £2,367.63  (£2,01 5  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Sharp  0800  262958 
www.  sharp-usa.  com 
Good  Points  Lovely  screen,  built-in  modem 
Bad  Points  Outsized  external  floppy  drive 
Conclusion  A  little  more  expensive 
than  some  ultraportables,  but  still  worth 
considering 

Performance  results 


y 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


15 


Mctacreations  Poser  4 


and  animation 


◄  A  FROWN,  A  SMILE, 
OR  ANY  OTHER 
EXPRESSION  YOU  CARE 
FOR,  AND  CHECK  OUT 
THAT  WARDROBE. 

Y With  the  Walk 
Designer  animating 

WALKING  FIGURES  IS  A 
STROLL  IN  THE  PARK. 


3D  design 

A  3D  package  that  is  so  easy 
to  use  it  is  guaranteed  to 
bring  a  smile  to  your  faces, 
and  a  nod,  and  a  wink... 

t  says  on  the  box:  The  premier  3D 
character  animation  and  figure 
design  tool’  and  you’d  be  hard 
pushed  to  argue.  Poser  4  is  to  figure 
drawing  what  CAD  is  to  technical 
drawing  -  it  provides  all  the  parts  you 
need  and  the  tools  to  put  them  together 
to  create  realistic  looking  3D  people. 
Humans  are  only  part  ofthe  story.  Poser 
4  introduces  a  library  of  animal  figures 
and  even  robots. 

Version  4  is  a  marked  improvement 

on  3,  offering  a  vast  increase  in  control 
over  models  and  their  environment  as 
well  as  more  of  everything  that  version  3 
already  had  to  offer.  The  models 
themselves  offer  far  greater  scope  for 
manipulation,  including  facial 
expressions  and  manual  dexterity, 
morphable  facial  features  and 
musculature.  Lighting  and  camera 
controls  have  been  brought  up  to  the 
standard  found  in  other  3D  applications, 
while  you  can  position  lights  wherever 
you  want,  and  control  their  angle  and 
intensity.  You  can  also  view  figures  from 
preset  and  user-placed  camera  positions, 
all  fully  adjustable  along  three  axes. 

Additions  include  a  much  wider 
range  of  poseable  figures,  a  bigger 
wardrobe,  a  wider  choice  of  realistic 
hairstyles  and  a  new  library  of  props. 
Animation  features  have  been  beefed  up 
with  an  automatic  walk  designer  and  a 
timeline-based  animation  controller. 

Users  of  other  Metacreations  products 
will  feel  at  home  with  the  interface  that 
makes  light  work  of  complex  tasks.  A 
resizeable  floating  view  window  displays 
the  figure  viewed  from  the  current 
camera  position  and  is  surrounded  by 
control  palettes  that  look  like  physical 
objects  rather  than  products  of  a 
software  developer’s  toolbox. 

Lighting  controls  are  manipulated  by 
positioning  lights  around  a  sphere,  while 
camera  positions  are  selected  by  clicking 
on  body  part  icons,  pan,  tilt,  rotate  and 
zoom  by  means  of  a  four-point  compass. 


Library  palettes  containing  complete 
figures  (male,  female,  children,  animals, 
robots),  action  poses,  faces,  hairstyles, 
preset  hand  poses,  props,  lighting  and 
camera  positions  are  accessed  through  a 
tiny  ribbed  tab  on  the  right  ofthe  screen. 

The  edit  palette  comprises  nine  tool 
buttons  that  you  can  use  to  rotate,  twist, 
scale,  group,  colour  and  adjust  elements. 
All  the  editing  tools  work  in  two  ways. 
Dragging  on  a  body  part  with  a  selected 
tool  applies  the  transformation  to  the 
part,  dragging  on  the  tool  button  applies 
the  transformation  to  the  entire  figure. 

Greater  control  is  provided  by 
parameter  dials  -  adjusted  using  a 
thumbwheel  or  numerical  input.  These 
let  you  alter  an  element’s  attributes. 
Parameter  dials  for  the  head  include 
open  lips,  smile,  brow  position,  blink 
and  mouth  positions  for  certain  vowels 
and  consonants. 

Using  the  parameter  dials,  it’s 
possible  to  raise  eyebrows  to  a  quizzical 
point,  close  an  eye  to  form  a  wink  and 
change  expression  from  a  deep  frown  to 
a  broad  grin.  Parameter  dials  for  hands 
let  you  alter  the  position  of  fingers  and 
thumbs  from  widely  spread  to  a  tight 
grasp,  scale,  taper,  make  rotational  and 
side-to  side  movements.  The  Superhero 
morph  parameter  can  pump  up  a  figure 
to  Schwarzenegger-like  proportions. 

Poser  4’s  animation  features  include 
an  automatic  walk  designer  and  a 
sophisticated  timeline-based  animation 
palette  that  automatically  interpolates 


and  inserts  intermediate  frames  based 
on  user-defined  keyframes.  The  walk 
designer  lets  you  create  a  blend  of 
walking  styles  including  run,  shuffle, 
sneak  and  strut,  and  to  tweak  secondary 
parameters  such  as  head  bounce. 

The  additional  content  on  the  second 
CD  turned  out  to  be  a  disappointment  - 
it  was  mostly  reworked  Poser  3  figures 
and  other  existing  material.  Some  new 
figures  or  wardrobes  would  have  been 
welcome.  The  few  sample  animations, 
however,  particularly  Sumo  Baby, 
superbly  demonstrate  the  range  of 
posture  and  movement,  facial  expression 
and  camera  movement  achievable. 

Ken  McMahon 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  £199.99  (£170.20  ex  VAT), 

upgrade  £84.99  inc  VAT 

Contact  Metacreations  0181  358  5858 

( Computers  Unlimited) 

www.  metacreations,  com 

Good  Points  Much  improved  control  and 

animation ,  better  hair  and  clothes 

Bad  Points  Additional  content 

disappointing 

Conclusion  If  you’ re  into  figure-based 
illustration  and  animation, you  can’t  do 
without  it 

System  requirements  PC:  Pentium , 
Win95  or  later,  32Mb  RAM  (64Mb 
recommended),  240Mb  disk  space 
Mac:  System  8  or  later,  memory  and  disk 
requirements  as  above 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


ZZ 


Sony  Vaio  PCG-F290 

Cutting  edge  notebook 


If  your  perfect  partner  has  to 
be  fast  and  well-equipped, 
then  this  addition  to  tne  Sony 
stable  is  for  you. 

The  PCG-F290  is  the  latest  power 
notebook  in  the  Sony  Vaio  range, 
sporting  a  powerful  400MHz 
Pentium  II  processor  and  128Mb  of 
RAM.  That’s  quite  a  lot  of  power  for  a 
mobile  solution,  but  this  is  no  ordinary 
mobile  computer.  The  F290  is  being 
aimed  at  the  mobile  video  editor  and  as 
such,  it  has  to  be  fast  and  well  equipped. 

The  F290  isn’t  a  lithe  beast  like 
its  505  cousins,  although  it’s  not 
particularly  bulky  either  considering  the 
components  that  Sony  has  squeezed  into 
it.  Weighing  in  at  3.5kg  including  the 
floppy  drive  and  battery,  it’s  also  not 
particularly  heavy. 

As  is  usually  the  case  with  a  Sony 
product,  the  design  is  stunning.  The 
casing  is  a  two-tone  affair,  comprising 
the  usual  Sony  purple  coupled  with  an 
attractive  dark  grey.  The  dimensions  are 
slightly  larger  than  the  FI  90  reviewed  in 
the  May  1 999  issue,  but  this  is  due  to  the 
increased  screen  size.  The  TFT  display 
now  measures  1 5in,  although  it  can  still 
only  handle  a  resolution  of  1 024x768. 

No  dead  pixels  are  evident,  but  the 
lighting  is  a  little  uneven,  with  the  top 
appearing  slightly  darker  than  the 
bottom  ofthe  display.  The  2.5Mb 
NeoMagic  graphics  chipset  is  more  than 
capable  of  getting 
the  best  out  ofthe 
internal  display, 
although  it  could 
prove  limiting  if 
the  notebook  is 
connected  to  an 
external  monitor. 

Storage  comes  courtesy  of  a  6.4Gb 
IBM  hard  disk.  This  isn’t  a  huge  amount 
of  space  by  desktop  standards,  but  it’s 
fairly  impressive  in  the  notebook  world 
and  large  enough  to  serve  the  needs  of  a 
mobile  video  editor.  To  the  right  ofthe 
chassis  is  a  4x  DVD-ROM  drive  and  a 
floppy  disk  drive.  Although  the  floppy 
drive  can  be  removed,  it’s  good  to  see 
that  all  the  peripherals  can  be 
accommodated  in  the  chassis,  rather 


The  inclusion  of  a 
FireWire  port  puts 
Sony’s  notebooks  into 
a  market  of  their  own 


than  having  to  carry 
around  extra  bits 
and  pieces. 

On  the  left 
hand  side  are  two 
PC  Card  slots, 
headphone  and 
microphonejacks 
and  the  power 
switch.  There’s 
also  an  IEEE1394 
or  FireWire  port. 

It’s  this  inclusion 
that  puts  Sony’s 
notebooks  in 
a  market  of 
their  own. 

Since  Sony’s  DV 
(Digital  Video) 
camcorders  have 
FireWire  outputs, 
this  port  will  allowyou 
to  import  video  digitally 
for  editing  on  the 
notebook.  To  capitalise  on 
this  feature,  Sony  has 
bundled  its  own  video  editing 
software,  DVgate  Motion,  as 
well  as  Adobe’s  Premiere  LE. 

Even  though  a  serious  video  editor  is 
likely  to  have  software  of  this  type 
already,  it’s  a  commendable  inclusion. 

With  the  increased  form  factor  due 

to  the  larger  screen,  there’s  no  problem 
fitting  in  a  full-size  keyboard.  The 
keyboard  can  often  make  or  break  a 
notebook,  so 
we’re  happy  to 
say  that  you 
won’t  be 
disappointed 
with  what’s  on 
offer  on  the  F290. 
That  said,  it’s  not 
as  impressive  as  the  keyboard  on  the  IBM 
ThinkPad  570  (reviewed  page  74).  The 
touch-pad  is  a  fine  example  and  pointer 
manipulation  is  the  simplest  oftasks. 
Unfortunately,  the  software  for  the 
touch-pad  wasn’t  loaded,  so  we  couldn’t 
turn  off  the  tapping  option,  although  the 
touch-pad  is  far  enough  away  from  the 
space  bar  for  this  not  to  be  a  problem. 

At  the  rear  ofthe  unit  are  serial, 
parallel,  VGA,  PS/2  and  USB  connectors, 


making  it  hard  to  think  of  a  port  this 
notebook  doesn’t  have. 

Bundled  in  the 
package  is  a  56 K 
PC  Card  modem  to 
get  you  connected. 
This  is  a  multi¬ 
function  card  that 
can  also  be  used  for 
GSM,  Ethernet  and 
ISDN  connection, 
although  separate 
kits  are  needed  for 
the  other  standards. 


Performance 
is  good  but 

not  mind- 
blowing. 
The 


F290 

turned  in  aSYSmark 
score  of  147,  which  is  1 5  higher 
than  the  366MHz  Pentium  II  equipped 
FI  90  scored  in  May.  With  a  price  of 
£2,559  ex  VAT,  the  F290  is  likely  to  make 
quite  a  dent  in  your  wallet.  However,  it  is 
a  beautifully  built  mobile  computer  and 
ifyou  want  to  do  video  editing  on  the 
move,  it’s  your  best  option. 

Riyad  Emeran 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★★ 

Price  £3,006.82  (£2,559  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Sony  0990  424424 

www.sony.co.uk 

Good  Points  Very  well  specified, 
IEEE 1 394  port  for  DV  editing 
Bad  Points  Pricey ,  not  as  fast  as  we 
expected 

Conclusion  A  well  built ,  cutting  edge 
notebook  computer  for  the  mobile  DV 
enthusiast 

Performance  results 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


13 


CTS 


NEW  PRODUC 


CreativeLabs  WebCam  III 

Now  you  can  be  seen  wherever  you  want  without  leaving  your  desk. 


Video  cameras  that  plugged  into  a 
PC  were  always  a  solution 
looking  for  a  problem,  but  then 
the  Internet  took  off  and  voila,  the 
webcam  was  born. 

Webcams  let 
you  send 
pictures 
across  the 
Internet  for 
such  things 
as  low-end 
video 

conferencing 
and  video  email, 
and  they  can  also 
be  used  to  post  live 
images  to  websites. 

The  diverse  Creative  Labs  is  already 
on  its  third  webcam  model, 
imaginatively  titled  WebCam  III. 

Each  version  ofthe  Creative  Labs 
WebCam  has  seen  a  different  design, 
but  the  company  still  hasn’t  got  it 
quite  right.  The  large  base  adds  some 


much-needed  stability  to  the  unit  and 
the  hinge  affixed  to  the  camera  lets  you 
position  the  lens  vertically  through  90 
degrees.  What  you  can’t  do,  however,  is 
position  the  lens  horizontally,  unless  you 
turn  the  whole  thing  round. 

Okay,  that’s  no  problem, 
but  depending  on  the 
WebCam’s 
distance  from  the 
PC,  you  may  find 
that  it  gets  tugged 
out  of  position  by 
its  cable. 

At  least  the  cable 
is  a  decent  six  feet  in 
length,  and  the  USB 
plug  on  the  end  of  it 
means  there  is  no 
chunky  parallel 
port  adaptor 
to  poke  out 
ofthe  back 
ofyour  PC. 

Installation  is  as  easy  as 


you’d  hope  for  with  USB  and  there’s 
even  a  green  LED  on  the  WebCam  to  tell 
you  it’s  powered  and  working. 

Despite  a  maximum  still  image 
resolution  of 640x480  in  16.7  million 
colours,  the  WebCam’s  image  quality 
isn’t  the  best  for  these  devices.  The  auto 
brightness  and  exposure  settings  leave 
everything  a  little  dim  and  the  banding 
filter  is  best  left  off. 

Julian  Prokaza 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★ 

Price  £69  (£58.73  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Creative  Labs  0118  934  4322 

www.  cle.  creaf.  com 

Good  Points  Neat  design,  simple 
connection 

Bad  Points  Image  quality  bettered  by 
the  competition 

Conclusion  Though  cheap  and  relatively 
cheerful ,  the  WebCam  III  can’t  quite 
manage  the  crisp  image  quality  of  say ,  the 
Philips  USB  PC  video  camera 


Easy  CD  Creator  4 

It  feels  good,  it  looks  great  -  CD  writing  software  that  really  does  have  everything. 


ithout  a  doubt,  Adaptec’s 
Easy  CD  Creator  software  is 
the  de-facto  standard  for 
anybody  wanting  to  create  their  own 
CDs.  With  the  price  of  CD  recorders  and 
the  media  they  use  at  an  all-time  low, 
Adaptec  has  released  a  new  version  of 
the  software  to  take  advantage  ofthe 
new  market  potential. 

It’s  clear  that  a  lot  of  work  has  been 
put  into  ironing  out  all  the  problems 
with  the  older  versions  ofthe  software. 


While  some  ofthe  changes  may  seem 
only  cosmetic,  they  really  improve  the 
feel  ofthe  program.  Both  parts  ofthe 
software  -  those  for  creating  audio  and 
data  CDs  -  consist  of  a  drag  and  drop 
method  of  adding  the  files  you  want  to 
write  to  CD,  sticking  with  the  familiar 
explorer-style  functions.  Looking  deeper 
reveals  better  functions,  such  as  the 
ability  for  MP3  files  to  be  written  as 
audio  tracks  without  user  intervention. 
Perhaps  the  best  improvement  lies  in  the 
CD  cover  editor,  which  now 
works  very  well. 

By  no  means  does  the 
package  stop  there:  it 
includes  additional  software 
for  creating  picture  discs  and 
auto-running  video  discs. 
Should  you  still  thin k  this 
isn’t  enough,  you  won’t 
be  disappointed  with  the 
bundling  of  MGI’s  Photosuite 
and  Videowave,  which  lets 
you  edit  pictures  and  video 
files  before  writing  to  CD. 


Finally,  there  is  an  image-based 
backup  program  which  will  copy  the 
entire  contents  ofyour  hard  drive  to  as 
many  CDs  as  needed,  allowing  you  to 
recover  everything  in  the  event  of  a 
disaster.  Ifyou  have,  or  are  thinking 
about  getting  a  CD  writer,  then  you 
simply  can’t  be  without  this  software. 

David  Ludlow 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★★ 

Price  £57.58  (£49  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Adaptec  01 276  854500 

http://cdr.  adaptec.  com 

Good  Points  Easy  to  use  interface  and  a 
large  range  of  options 

Bad  Points  The  large  number  of  programs 
may  go  mostly  unused 

Conclusion  Everythingyou  could  ever  want 
to  use  to  create  your  own  CDs ,  and  all  at  an 
extremely  good  price.  Superb  for  anyone  with 
a  CD  writer 

System  requirements  Pentium  1 66MHz, 
90Mb  recommended  free  hard  disk  space , 
32  Mb  of  RAM,  Windows  95/98  or  NT 


£2 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


NEW  PRODUC 


Philips  FreeSpeech  2000 

Here’s  what  you  need  if  you  don’t  think  you’re  getting  the  recognition  you  deserve  from  your  PC. 


Philips  entered  the  PC  speech 

recognition  market  last  year  with 
FreeSpeech  98,  a  cheap,  no-frills 
package  that  originally  came  without  a 
microphone.  FreeSpeech  2000  is  now 
available  in  two  versions  -  with  a  normal 
headset  mike  orwith  the  Philips 
SpeechMike,  a  combination  handheld 
mike  and  trackball. 

FreeSpeech  2000  is  a  general-purpose 
continuous  speech  package  that  lets  you 
dictate  text  straight  into  most  popular 
applications.  It  also  functions  as  a 
command  and  control  package,  letting 
you  navigate  Windows  98  without 
touching  the  keyboard.  Unlike  its 
predecessor,  it  supports  multiple  users, 
has  text  to  speech  (courtesy  of  IBM), 
supports  relatively  complex  macros  and 
comes  with  a  microphone.  It  supports 
1 3  languages  out  of  the  box,  which,  given 
the  price,  makes  FreeSpeech  2000  good 
value.  The  package  remains  ‘modal’,  so 
to  switch  between  dictation  and 


command  modes  you  need  to  click 
a  button,  but  ifyou  have  the  SpeechMike 
a  dedicated  button  takes  care  ofthis. 

As  is  the  norm,  FreeSpeech  2000 
requires  enrolment  to  deliver  the  highest 
recognition  accuracies  -  we  gave  it  45 
minutes  of  dulcet  tones.  The  effort  was 
well  worth  it:  we  were  rewarded  with 


some  ofthe  best  initial  recognition 
accuracies  we’ve  come  across. 

Correction  is  a  simple  process  too. 

Roger  Gann 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

kkkk 

Price  with  headset  £79. 95  ( £68. 04 
ex  VAT),  with  SpeechMike  £124.95 
(£106.34  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Philips  Speech  Processing 
01206  755504  www.speech.philips.com 
Good  Points  Impressive  levels  of  accuracy, 
multi-language  support,  natural  language 
support 

Bad  Points  Still  modal,  number  handling 
not  as  smart  as  rivals 

Conclusion  FreeSpeech  2000  is  just  made 
for  the  single  European  market:  support  for 
1 3  languages  makes  it  very  good  value. 
Delivers,  fast,  accurate  text 

System  requirements  Pentium  MMX 
1 66/ 48Mb  RAM,  1 00Mb  disk  space  - 
Pentium  II  recommended,  SoundBlaster- 
compatible  sound  card,  CD-ROM  drive 


Modular  PCTV  Tuner 


Slouch  on  the  couch  and  tune  in  to  the  latest  television  channel  with  Modular  Technology. 


Ifyou’re  getting  fed  up  with  using 
your  computer  for  nothing  more 
entertaining  than  Excel  spreadsheets 
and  a  bit  of  word 
processing,  why 
not  transform 
it  into  a 

television  with  the 
help  ofthe  PCTV 
Tuner  card  from 
Modular  Technology? 
Installation  isjust 
a  case  of  plugging  the 
card  into  a  PCI 
slot  and 
connecting  a 
TV  aerial, 
and  the  world 
oftelevision  is 
your  oyster.  All 
the  usual  channels 
are  found 
automatically - 
weaker  signals  can  be 
manually  tuned.  The 


PCTVTuner  Card  doesn’t  detect  the 
station  name,  so  you  have  to  enter 
this  afterwards. 

Usingyour  mouse  to  change  channels 
can  become  irritating,  especially  ifyou 
are  sitting  away  from  your  computer.  For 
an  extra  £25,  couch  potatoes  can  buy  a 
remote  control,  which  transmits  to  a 
‘magic  eye’  that  sits  on  your  monitor  and 
plugs  into  the  joystick  port. 

The  TV  images  are  displayed  within  a 
resizable  window  on  the  desktop,  which 
offers  full  or  wide-screen  viewing,  while 
the  superb  Nicam  sound  is  fed  through 
your  existing  sound  card.  Depending  on 
the  signal,  the  pictures  can  be 
remarkably  clear.  A  really  neat  aspect  of 
the  PCTV  card  is  the  mosaic  function, 
which  allows  nine  thumbnail  channels  to 
be  displayed  on  the  screen  at  one  time  - 
channel  surfing  made  even  easier. 

In  addition  to  Fastext,  the  Teletext 
facility  uses  hyperlinks  to  jump  to  other 
pages,  much  like  Internet  browsing. 

Pages  are  stored  for  immediate  retrieval 


and  two  or  more  pages  from  different 
channels  can  be  viewed  at  once.  Text  can 
also  be  copied  and  manipulated  much  as 
in  a  word  processor. 

Luke  Peters 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

kkkkk 

Price  £60  (£51.06  ex  VAT)  with  remote 
control  £85  (£72.34  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Modular  Technolog/ 

01 869  321 323  www.modulartech.com 

Good  Points  Good  value  for  money, 
extended  teletext  features,  NICAM 
stereo  sound 

Bad  Points  Addingthe  remote  bumps 
up  the  price 

Conclusion  Not  just  an  extra  TV  for  the 
home,  but  one  that  includes  Nicam  stereo 
sound,  excellent  teletext  features  and  video 
capture  facilities 

System  requirements  Windows  95/98, 
Pentium  200MMX processor,  1 6Mb  of 
RAM,  5  Mb  of  free  hard  disk  space,  sound 
card,  DirectX  5  or  later,  high  colour  1 6bit 
VGA  monitor 


£4 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


NEW  PRODUC 


Packard  Bell  EasyMate  800 

Jupiter  class  notebook 


For  those  who  like  their 
notebooks  slim  and  stylish  - 
and  you  know  what  they  say 
about  the  size  of  your  screen. 

When  they  first  appeared, 

Windows  CE  handheld  PCs 
(or  H/PCs)  didn’t  receive 
quite  the  rapturous  reception  many 
would  have  hoped  for.  The  first  version 
of  the  operating  system  wasn’t  without 
its  problems  but  much  of  the  criticism 
was  levelled  at  the  hardware  itself.  The 
murky  monochrome  screens  just  weren’t 
up  to  handling  this  miniaturised  version 
ofWindows  and  the  keyboards  bore  too 
close  a  resemblance  to  a  pocket 
calculator  for  most  people. 

Undaunted,  manufacturers  tried 
again  and  again  and,  after  two  years  or 
so,  Windows  CE  has  now  spawned  a 
myriad  of  devices.  The  latest  is  the 
sub-notebook  size  Jupiter  class 
and  this  is  where  Packard 
Bell’s  first  foray  into 
Windows  CE  devices  sits. 

Superficially,  the 
EasyMate  800 
resembles  one  ofthe 
new  breed  of  super- 
slim,  ultra-portable  notebook 
PCs.  Just  over  an  inch  thick  and  with  a 
footprint  somewhere  between  A4  and 
A 5,  the  EasyMate  is  certainly  portable 
and  the  dull  silver  plastic  case  would  look 
almost  stylish  if  the  plastic  it  was  made 
from  wasn’t  quite  so  flimsy. 

Once  inside,  you’ll  be  pleased  to  note 
the  large  keyboard  and  impressive  9.4in 
diagonal  screen.  There’s  no  obvious 
pointing  device, 
though,  and 
Packard  Bell  has 
opted  to  stick 
with  a 

touchscreen  and 
stylus  for  the 
EasyMate  rather  than  a  touchpad. 

It’s  only  when  you  press  the  power 
button  on  the  EasyMate  that  it  becomes 
apparent  that  this  is  no  ordinary 
notebook.  Zero  second  boot  time  is 
known  as  instant-on  and  it’s  a  breath  of 
fresh  air  after  all  the  hanging  around 


involved  in  loading  other  versions  of 
Windows.  The  800x600  screen  -  the 
largest  on  any  H/PC  so  far  -  makes 
Windows  CE  difficult  to  tell  apart  from 
Windows  95  or  98 


‘Instant-on’  is  what 
zero  second  boot  time 
is  known  as  and  it’s  a 
breath  of  fresh  air 


and  the 

desktop  layout  will  look 
instantly  familiar  to  Windows  users. 

This  is  the  main  selling  point  of  H/PCs, 
as  it  lessens  the  steep  learning  curve 
associated  with  many  handheld 
computers. 

Windows  CE  is  different  from  its 
bigger  brethren,  though,  and  although 
data  can  be 
shared  between 
H/PC  and 
desktop 

applications,  the 
applications 
themselves 
cannot.  Thankfully,  Windows  CE 
Professional  -  as  used  on  the  EasyMate  - 
comes  with  pretty  much  everything  a 
user  would  want  right  from  the  box.  The 
‘Pocket’  versions  ofWord,  Excel,  Access, 
Internet  Explorer  and  the  bunch  of 
Outlook-like  applications  have  a 


sufficiently  rich  feature  set,  although 
Pocket  PowerPoint  is  still  limited  to 
displaying  presentations  and  cannot 
create  them.  Ifyou’re  interested  in  the 
EasyMate  as  a  PDA,  forget 
it,  it’s  just  too  big.  As  a 
replacement  for  a  notebook 
PC,  however,  it’s  an 
interesting  proposition. 
Many  notebook  users  lug 
around  a  few  kilograms  of 
hardware  just  to  write 
documents  on  the  train  - 
something  that  can  be 
achieved  just  as  easily  with 
the  EasyMate.  In  fact,  the 
EasyMate  can  just  about 
replace  a  notebook  for 
many  tasks  and  the  claimed 
eight-hour  battery  life 
means  it  can  replace  one 
for  longer  as  well. 


At  the  risk  ofending  on  a 
bum  note,  the  EasyMate  isn’t 
without  its  drawbacks  but  the 
biggest  isn’t  its  fault.  No 
matter  how  versatile  Windows 
CE  is,  it’s  still  intended  as  a 
companion  to  a  PC,  whereas  a 
notebook  PC  operates 
completely  independently.  The 
screen  isn’t  as  clear  as  it  could 
be  either,  no  doubt  due  to  the 
extra  layers  needed  to  make  it 
touch-sensitive,  and  there  really 
should  be  a  way  to  keep  the  stylus  to 
hand  when  you’re  typing.  Speaking  of 
typing,  the  keys  could  be  a  touch  bigger 
and  further  apart,  since  even  medium- 
size  fingers  will  find  it  a  little  cosy. 

Julian  Prokaza 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★★ 

Price  £799  (£680  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Packard  Bell  0990  500049 

www.  packardbell-europe.  com 

Good  Points  Large  screen ,  plenty  of  ports, 

good  application  suite 

Bad  points  Cramped  keyboard,  cheap 

finish 

Conclusion  Ifyou’re  thinking  of  buying  a 
notebook  for  use  on  the  move,  the  EasyMate 
800  is  worth  consideration,  but  remember 
you  need  a  PC  to  make  the  most  of  it 


M 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Borland  JBuilder  3 

Java  application  builder 


If  it’s  beans,  tools,  wizards 
and  widgets  you’re  after, 
then  JBuilder  3  has  everything 
you  could  ask  for. 

Borland’s  Java  development  tool, 
JBuilder,  provides  click-and-drag 
visual  programming,  targeting 
any  Java  2  VM  (virtual  machine), 
although  this  is  currently  only  fully 
available  on  Windows  or  Solaris.  You  can 
also  configure JBuilderto  compile  for 
earlier  versions  oftheJVM.  JBuilder  itself 
still  runs  only  on  Windows,  although 
there  are  plans  to  move  it  to  other 
platforms,  and  Borland  demonstrated  a 
1 00% Java  version  ofJBuilder,  running  on 
Sun’s  Solaris  operating  system  at  the  last 
JavaOne  conference. 

JBuilder  is  useful  for  general-purpose 
Java  work,  but  Borland  would  really  like 
you  to  use  it  with  Application  Server,  an 
expensive  suite  of  components  including 
Visi  Broker  and  some  clever  Java 
applications  for  managing  and  tuning 
distributed  applications.  Parts  ofthis 
come  bundled  with  the  Enterprise  edition. 
The  two  otherj  Builder  versions  are  the 
Professional,  for  database  work,  and  the 
Standard,  which  provides  the  basics. 

A  JBuilder  application  starts  with  a 
new  project.  Through  project  properties 
you  can  set  the  target  JVM,  the  style  of 
generated  code  and  other  global 
options.  Next,  you  add  other 
components  such  as  an  application, 
applet  or  servlet,  custom  classes  or 
JavaBeans.  The  project  workspace 
includes  a  browser  for  navigating  project 
files  and  components,  an  editorwith 
both  source  code  and  visual  design  views 
and  an  inspector  for  setting  properties  or 
generating  event  handlers.  A  key  feature 
is  two-way  coding,  which  means  that 
edits  can  be  made  either  visually  or  in 
code  without  any  problem. 

Although  there  is  a  full  set  of 
JavaBean  components,  wizards  and 
tools,  there  are  several  component  sets 
with  overlapping  functionality.  Swing  is 
the  standard  Sun  widget  set  used  in  JDK 
(Java  Development  Kit)  1.2.  In  the 
dbSwing  set  these  are  enhanced  to  have 
data-aware  functionality.  JBCL 


(JavaBean 

Component  Library) 
is  the  original 
JBuilder  component 
library,  but  this  is 
rendered  more  or 
less  obsolete  by 
Swing  and  dbSwing. 
You  can  also  use 
AWT  components 
for  JDK  1 .02 
compatibility. 


A  NOW  AT  VERSION  3.0, 
JBuilder  is  focused  on 

CORBA  AND  DATABASE 
APPLICATIONS 

◄J Builder’s  New  dialog 

OFFERS  A  FULL  RANGE  OF  GET- 
YOU-STARTED  OPTIONS 


Much  of  the  focus  in  JBuilder  is  on 
database  connectivity.  DataExpress  is  the 
brand  name  forj Builder’s  database 
architecture,  which  separates  user 
interface,  datasets  and  database 
connections.  A  DataStore  component  is 
itself  an  embedded  database,  letting  you 
cache  data  in  a  local  file  for  good 
performance  on  a  network  or  for 
disconnected  use.  Unfortunately,  it  only 
comes  with  the  Enterprise  version  and 
you  need  additional  licences  to  deploy  it. 
The  model  is  stateless,  so  connections 
are  only  made  when  data  is  being 
accessed  or  saved,  ideal  for  network  or 
Web  applications.  I n  J Builder  3, 
DataExpress  has  been  separated  from 
JBCL,  so  you  can  use  it  with  dbSwing. 

Other  new  features  in  JBuilder  include 
a  help  viewer,  with  a  long  overdue  full 
text  search,  and  an  application  generator 
for  multi-tiered  Corba  projects.  A 
package  migration  wizard  helps  with  the 
tedium  of  updating  class  names  in  line 
with  revisions  in  JDK  1 .2  and  the 
development  environment  is  enhanced. 

In  fact,  the  main  reason  forgetting 
JBuilder  3  is  itsJDK  1 .2  components  and 
improved  database  features. 

This  is  an  excellent  Java  application 
builder  and  the  best  all-round  choice  if 
your  system  is  up  to  it.  However,  the 


help  viewer 
gobbles  vast 
amounts  of 
memory  and  it 

is  slow  if  it  needs  to  page  to  disk. 

Our  hunch  is  that  Java  servlets 
doing XMLgeneration  and  parsingwill 
often  prove  more  manageable  and 
productive  than  JBuilder  3.  Ifyourjava 
interest  is  in  general  purpose 
applications,  or  you  need  to  target  JDK 
1.1  or  lower,  JBuilder  is  not  often 
relevant.  Even  so,  at  version  3.0,  JBuilder 
has  matured  into  a  highly  usable  Java 
application  builder 

Tim  Anderson 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  JBuilder  3  Standard  £98.99  ( £84.26 
ex  VAT ),  3  Pro  £527.58  (£449  ex  VAT), 

3  Enterprise  £1,996.33  (£1,699  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Inprise/Borland  0800  454065 

www.  borland.  com 

Good  Points  An  excellent  range  of 
components,  Java  2  support,  easy  switching 
from  code  to  visual  editing,  strong  data  base 
architecture 

Bad  Points  Performance  remains  a 
problem  and  online  help  is  slow.  Focus  on 
high-end  distributed  database  applications 
is  irrelevant  to  many  users 
Conclusion  An  outstanding  Java 
development  tool  but  needs  a  big  system 
to  run  it.  Good  value  in  its  standard  edition 
but  expensive  otherwise,  particularly  if  you 
need  deployment  licences 
System  requirements  Pentium  1 66, 
Windows  95/98  or  NT,  96Mb  RAM  and 
1 50Mb  disk  space 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


SL 


NEW  PRODUC 


Sharp  VN-EZ1 

Suddenly  it’s  EZ-peezy  to  get  video  onto  the  Web. 


How  do  you  get  a  short  video  clip 
onto  the  Internet?  Film  your 
subject  with  a  camcorder, 
digitise  it,  then  compress  and  reformat  it 
into  a  shape  and  size  that  befits  the 
online  medium  -  a  bit  of  a  pain  really. 
Sharp’s  VN-EZ1 ,  more  charmingly 
known  as  the  Internet  ViewCam,  makes 
this  process  a  doddle. 

You’d  be  forgiven  for  mistaking  the 
EZ1  for  a  digital  camera,  and  indeed  it 
can  fire  off 640x480  pixel  stills.  At 
81x90x42mm  and  240g,  it’s  lighter  and 
smaller  than  you’d  think  too.  However, 
by  employing  the  heavily  compressed 
MPEG-4  format,  the  EZ1  can  capture 
between  one  and  20  minutes’  worth  of 
movingvideo  (plus  mono  sound)  onto 
the  supplied  4Mb  Smart  Media  card. 
There  are  five  quality  modes  to  choose 
from:  four  operating  at  1 60x1 20  pixels 
and  five  to  1 5fps,  and  one  at  320x240 
pixels  and  two  to  five  fps;  there’s  even  a 
time  lapse  function.  Smart  Media  cards 
are  available  up  to  32Mb  in  size, 


boasting  between 
1 0  minutes  and  almost 
2.5  hours. 

The  EZ1  is  designed  to 
produce  video  for  online 
distribution  only,  so  there’s 
no  TV  output  or  serial  port. 

Instead,  Sharp  has  supplied 
a  floppy  disk  adaptor  to 
quickly  read  inserted  Smart 
Media  cards.  Video  is  stored 
in  Microsoft’s  new  Advanced 
Streaming  Format,  ASF,  which  allows 
updated  media  players  to  start  playing 
the  file  without  fully  downloading  it. 
Artifacts  are  present  in  the  video,  but  it’s 
recognisable  and,  crucially,  small.  A  20 
second  clip  on  the  middle  setting 
measured  only  1 65Kb. 

Existing  camcorder  owners  may  find 
better  value  fiddling  with  a  video  capture 
card,  but  the  EZ1  really  is  the  simplest 
and  m ost  fu n  way  to  get  co m  pact  vi d eo 
files  on  the  Web. 

Gordon  Laing 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  under  £600  TBC 
Contact  Sharp  0800  2629 5 8 

www.  sharp-world,  com 

Good  Points  Compact  device  for  making 
compact  movies 

Bad  Points  Capture  card  cheaper  for 
camcorder  owners 

Conclusion  Easiest  and  quickest  way  to  get 
video  online 


Diamond  Rio  PMP300  SE 

MP3  killed  the  radio  star!  Check  out  this  stylish  mobile  assassin. 


Diamond’s  notorious  MP3  player 
is  available  in  a  teal-blue,  64Mb 
version  from  its  US  website 
<www.diamondmm.com>.  A  set  of 

accessories  is  also  available,  so  we 
decided  to  buy  the  lot. 

The  player  can  store  about  an  hour  of 
music,  encoded  at 
1 28Kbit/sec,  which  is 
more  than  enough  for 
a  portable  player.  It 
also  takes  3.3v 
SmartMedia  cards  for 
extra  storage  space. 

The  bundled  software 
handles  encoding  and 
transfer  to  the  player, 
which  takes  a  rather 
slow  minute  per  track. 

The  player’s 
buttons  are  difficult  to 
use,  being  too  flat  to 
discern  by  touch 
alone.  So  we  tried  the 
remote  control  headset, 


which  has  a  control  dongle  on  its  cord. 
Again,  the  buttons  are  too  small  and 
fiddly  but  at  least  you  can  clip  the  remote 
within  eyesight.  Another  downside  is  that 
the  player’s  display  doesn’t  provide 
much  info,  such  as  the  track  name. 

But  it  is  a  good  player.  Sound  is 

excellent  for  MP3  and  a 
portable  device,  the 
batteries  last  for 
about  1 0  hours  and  it 
doesn’t  skip  while 
jogging,  although  this 
feature  went  untested. 

You  can  -  and  we 
did  -  get  a  leather  belt 
clip  case  that  does 
little  but  protect  the 
player  and  let  you 
carry  two  SmartMedia 
cards  and  a  spare  AA. 

The  32Mb 
PMP300  is  available 
off  the  shelf  and 
Diamond  is  soon  to 


launch  an  upgrade,  the  PMP500,  also 
with  64Mb  but  with  a  USB  connector. 
Creative  and  Casio  are  also  launching 
devices  with  features  such  as  FM  tuners. 

MP3  players  will  catch  on  but  they’re 
still  in  the  geeky  domain.  To  encode  -  or 
steal  from  the  Net  -  MP3  tracks  and  then 
upload  to  a  player  seems  a  hassle.  Why 
not  get  an  M  D  player  for  now? 

Paul  Smith 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★ 

Contact  Diamond  01189  444400 
www.  diamondmm.  com 

Price  PMP300  SE  £156.22,  headphone 
£12.47,  leather  case  £18.72,  2x1 6Mb 
flash  £62.47,  import  duty  £63.73,  total 
£313.61 

Good  Points  Light,  long-lastingand  cool. 

A  bit  like  Wrigley’s  Spearmint,  then 
Bad  Points  Not  the  best  design  and  not  the 
cheapest  way  of  listening  to  music 
Conclusion  Probably  best  to  wait  for 
next-gen  MP3  players 


M 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


NEW  PRODUC 


Proxim  Symphony 

and  Diamond  Homefree 


Ever  wished  your  PCs  would 
talk  to  each  other  and  share 
things  -  without  getting  their 
wires  crossed? 

fyou  are  one  of  the  lucky  few  who  has 
more  than  one  PC  at  home,  but 
always  seem  to  want  the  file  or  to  use 
the  printerthat  is  on  the  other  machine, 
then  you  need  to  create  your  own 
network.  The  Symphony  and  Homefree 
offerings  from  Proxim  and  Diamond 
respectively  do  just  this,  without  a  wire 
connecting  the  two  cards. 

Aimed  at  the  home  and  small 
business  markets,  these  products  allow 
you  to  share  whatever  files  and  devices 
are  in  the  networked  machines.  The 
theory  is  that  this  removes  the  need  for  a 
separate  CD-ROM,  printer,  modem  or 
second  phone  line  as  they  can  all  be 
shared  across  your  network.  And  all  this 
at  an  optimum  claimed  transfer  speed  of 
1 .6Mbit/sec  forthe  Proxim  and 
1  Mbit/sec  forthe  Homefree. 


successfully,  as  did  Internet  sharing. 
We  found  browsing  to  be  slightly 
slower  on  the  laptop  that  was  sharing 
the  modem  in  a  desktop  PC. 


The  first  thing  that  you  have  to  do  with 
Proxim’s  wireless  ISA  card  is  plug  in  the 
antenna.  This  n  •  f  f  f 

allows  you  to  Being  able  to  wander 

move  j  ust  the  a round  browsing  the 

antenna  rather  .  O  # 

than  the  whole  Internet  was  impressive 

computer.  We 

felt  that  the  installation  program  was 
more  user-friendly  than  the  Homefree, 
although  we  had  to  be  careful  to  read  the 
comprehensive  instruction  manual 
thoroughly  to  install  everything 
successfully.  Once  set  up,  file  and  device 
sharing  worked 


The  speed  at  which  you  can  access 
the  Internet  will  be  affected  by  a 
number  of  factors.  The  quality  of  the 
shared  modem  and  phone  line  are 
two,  but  the  data  transfer  speed 
between  the  shared  devices  is  another. 
This  in  turn  depends  on  factors  such 
as  the  distance  between  the  PCs  and 
the  thickness  of  any  walls  or  other 
obstructions  between  them.  However, 
provided  only  one  computer  is  using  the 
connection  at  one  time,  this  should  not 
prove  too  much  of  a  problem.  Where 
connection  speed  will  really  suffer, 
however,  is  when  two  users  request  a 
page  at  the  same  time,  or  if  one  is 
downloading  a  file  while  another  is 
browsing.  Ifyour  primary  objective  in 
networking  two  computers  is  that  they 
can  both  use  the  Internet,  you  would  be 
better  advised  to  install  a  second  phone 
line.  That  said,  being  able  to  wander 
around  our  building  with  a  notebook 
browsing  the 
Internet  was  an 
impressive 
achievement  -  the 
speed  ofthe 
connection 
remained  the  same  at  a  distance  of  50 
feet  as  it  did  at  three  feet. 


We  also  tested  the  PC  Card  and  ISA 
versions  of  Homefree.  With  the  same 
claimed  range  as  the  Symphony  kit  (1 50 
feet)  and  a  similar  set  of  features,  there  is 
little  to  choose  between  them  on  paper. 
The  installation  procedure  is  less  user 
friendly  than  Symphony’s  -  using 
Windows’  Add  New  Hardware  wizard, 
the  configuration  screen  requires  you 
to  press  both  the  share  files  and  share 
Internet  buttons  to  complete  the 
process,  even  if  pressing  these 
buttons  is  not  appropriate.  Once 
beyond  this  minor  quirk,  however, 
the  Homefree  shares  files  and 
devices  as  well  as  the  Symphony. 
We  tried  sharing  Internet  access 
using  a  notebook  as  the  machine 
with  the  modem,  but  the 


combined  efforts  ofthe 
VNU  Labs  and  Diamond’s  technical 
support  could  not  make  it  function. 

Overall,  we  found  the  Symphony  to 
be  the  better  product.  The  fact  remains, 
though,  that  by  buying  either  ofthem 
you  would  be  setting  up  a  network  in  a 
more  expensive  way  and  have  a  slower 
data  transfer  rate  than  traditional  wire. 
There  are  so  many  wires  coming  out  of 
the  average  PC  anyway,  you  would  need 
a  very  specific  reason  to  remove  a  single 
network  cable  from  the  equation. 

Jason  Jenkins 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

irkirk 

Proxim  Symphony 

Price  Expected  to  be  around  £1 15  forthe 
PCI/ ISA  card  (£97. 87  ex  VAT)  and  £1 55 
for  the  PC  Card  (£1 31 .91  ex  VAT)  on 
release  in  August 

Contact  Proxim  UK  0 1235  86500 1 

www.  proxim.  com 

Good  Points  The  better  installation 
procedure  ofthe  two  systems  tested  here, 
adjustable  antenna  saves  you  having  to  shift 
your  PC  to  optimise  reception 
Bad  Points  None  to  speak  of 
Conclusion  Easy  to  install  with  a 
comprehensive  manual 

★★ 

Diamond  Homefree 

Price  ISA/ PCI  £89  (£75.74  ex  VAT), 

PC  Card  £  1 09  (£92. 77  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Diamond  0118  944  4400 

www.  diamondmm.  com 

Good  Points  Slightly  cheaper  than  the 
Proxim  alternative 

Bad  Points  We  had  difficulty  gettingthe 
Internet  sharing  to  work 
Conclusion  I  fyou  can  make  it  share 
modems,  then  this  is  definitely  worth 
consideration 


92 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Sound  System  DMX  vs 

Montego  II  Quadzilla 


There’s  plenty  to  make  a  noise 
about  with  these  sound  cards 
-  and  your  CPU  will  thank  you. 

If  you  Ye  keen  to  boost  your  PC’s 
performance,  a  PCI  sound  card  may 
not  be  that  high  on  your  shopping 
list.  You  Ye  probably  sorted  for  sound 
already,  so  why  upgrade  that  part  of 
your  system?  Well,  hear  this:  compared 
with  the  ageing  ISA,  SoundBlaster 
compatibles,  PCI  boards  operate  with 
significantly  less  CPU  involvement.  This 
frees  up  overheads,  while  PCI’s  greater 
bandwidth  delivers  more  sound 
channels,  supports  3D  positional  audio, 
multiple  sets  of  speakers,  real-time 
effects -the  list  goes  on.  Interested? 

Terratec  Sound  System  DMX 


straightforward.  Bundled 
applications  include 
WaveLab  Lite  for 
audio  editing, 

Mixman  and  40 
shareware  titles. 

The  synthesiser 
comes  with  2Mb  and 
4Mb  sample  sets.  We 
were  reasonably 
unimpressed  with  the 
quality  ofthe 
instruments,  although 
this  is  typical  of  cards  in  this  price 
range.  However,  digital  audio 
playback  was  crystal  clear  and  virtually 
no  noise  could  be  heard. 

Turtle  Beach  Montego  II 
Quadzilla 


Sound  quality  is  exceptional.  The 
onboard  synth  is  rather  ordinary,  but 
this  shouldn’t  distract  you  ifyou’re  after 
a  games  card,  as  most  sound  tracks  are 
on  CD  these  days. 


The  Sound  System  DMX  is  powered  by 
the  new  ESS  Canyon3D  processor  and  is 
the  first  card  to  use  Sensaura’s  3D 
MultiDrive  technology.  In  addition  to 
Sensaura’s  proprietary  3D  algorithms, 
the  DMX  is  compatible  with  A3D 
and  Creative’s  open  EAX 
(Environmental  Audio 
Xtensions). 

The  DMX  is 
equipped 
for  two 
or  four 
speaker 
playback. 

Further 

I/O  options  include 
two  internal  CD  audio 
connectors,  one  for 
voice  modem  and 
an  auxiliary 
device  of 
your  choice. 

A  WaveTable 
daughterboard 
can  be  added  and 
there’s  an  optional 
radio  module.  The 
second  card,  which 
connects  internally, 
provides  optical  and 
coaxial  digital  inputs  and 
outputs. 

Plug  and  play  handled  the 
installation,  so  setting  up  was 


ASorted 


FOR  SOUND 


WITH  THE 


Terratec 


The  Quadzilla  is  built  around  Aureal’s 
Vortex  2  chipset.  As  well  as  providing 
your  everyday  meat-and-two-veg  sounds, 
it  handles  the  processing  of  A3D. 
Originally  developed  for  NASA  flight 
simulators,  A3D  creates  a  stunning  3D 
sound  field  usingjust  two  speakers.  We 
often  found  ourselves  looking  over 
our  shoulder  in  disbelief. 

A3D  has  support  for  four 
speakers  and,  as  expected,  this 
improved  the  3D  positioning  of 
sounds  still  further.  Other  new 
features  include  wavetracing  (to 
calculate  acoustic  reflections,  or  echoes, 
from  your  3D  environment)  and 
occlusion.  This  filters  a  sound  when  its 
source  disappears  behind,  say,  a  wall. 

The  Quadzilla  comes  with  two  cards. 

The  main  board  provides  the 
usual  mod  cons  (mic  and  line 
inputs,  speaker  output  and 
joystick  connector),  while 
the  second  provides  connectors 
for  coaxial,  digital  output  and  rear 
speakers.  Internally,  there  are 
connectors  for  CD  audio,  voice  modem 
and  an  auxiliary  device. 

We  reckon  the  days  of  com  plicated 
sound  card  installations  are  behind  us 
now;  plug  and  play  took  care  of 
everything  first  time  around.  The 
package  includes  a  suite  of  audio  apps 
from  Voyetra  for  recording,  editing  and 
playing  back  audio  and  MIDI  files. 


■  Which  is  best? 

In  our  opinion,  A3D  has  the  edge  over 
Sensaura  with  the  release  ofversion  2.0 
hardware  and  software.  However,  the 
DMX  package  provides  digital  I/O.  The 
choice,  as  they  say,  is  yours. 

Steven  Helstrip 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

TERRATEC  SOUND  SYSTEM  DMX 
Price  £729  (£110  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Terratec  ProMedia 
01600  772111 

www.  terratec.  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Optical  and  coaxial  digital 
I/O  as  standard 

Bad  Points  Mixer  graphics  don't  display 
correctly  at  a  screen  resolution  of 
1280x1024 

Conclusion  A  solid  all-round  performer. 
Worth  the  outlay  for  the  digital  I/O  alone 

★★★★ 

TURTLE  BEACH  MONTEGO  II 

QUADZILLA 

Price  £99  ( £84  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Et  Cetera  Distribution 
01706228039 

www.  etcetera,  co.  uk 

Good  Points  A3 D  2.0  works  superbly , 
healthy  software  bundle 
Bad  Points  No  digital  input.  Digital 
output  is  fixed  to  either  32  or  48 KHz 
Conclusion  The  better  gaming  card 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


21 


CTS 


NEW  PRODUC 


Coda  FinaleAllegro 

Tune  in,  turn  on  and  MIDI  out  to  music  software  that  will  notate  your  wildest  ramblings. 


►Assigning  the 

INSTRUMENTS  OF  A 
COMPOSITION  TO 
THEIR  RESPECTIVE 
MIDI  CHANNELS 


Score  writing 
applications 
have  never 
enjoyed  widespread 
popularity.  For 
conventional 
musicians,  the  term 
'computer  music’ 
still  has  negative 
connotations  and 
they’re  rejected  by 
desktop  musicians 
because  oftheir 
use  of  standard 
notation.  Indeed, 
one  of  the 
attractions  of 
computer 
sequencing  has 
been  its  way  of  shielding  users 
from  music  theory  and  presenting 
information  in  a  much  more 
accessible  form.  Notation  packages 
such  as  this  are  aimed  at  the 
group  of  people  willing  to 
embrace  both  the  crotchet  and 
the  computer. 

Allegro  is  score  writing  for 

those  prepared  to  sacrifice  the 
advanced  features  of  more 
sophisticated  packages  such  as 
its  parent  application,  Finale,  to 
achieve  faster  results.  The 
designers  have  gone  to  some 
lengths  to  keep  it  accessible, 
stripping  away  Finale’s  more 
esoteric  functions  such  as 
multiple  font  printing  and  its 
plug-in  capability  (a  major 
advance  for  a  score  writing 
application).  What  hasn’t  been 
affected  is  the  relationship  with 
MIDI.  Crucially,  the  company  has 
recognised  that  for  many  users,  a  printed 
score  is  unlikely  to  be  the  final 
destination  oftheirwork. 

MIDI  is  core  to  Allegro’s  operations, 
giving  it  a  more  expansive  feel  than  its 
rivals.  You’ll  find  MIDI  solutions  to  a 
variety  of  performance-related  problems 
that  couldn’t  be  accommodated  using 
scoring  techniques  alone. Needless  to 
say,  you  can  enter  music  via  MIDI 
keyboard  and  standard  MIDI  files,  as 
well  as  through  the  computer’s  own 
keyboard  and  mouse. 


◄Starting  work 

ON  A  NEW  SCORE 

using  the  Simple 
Entry  tools 


Vi*-r  ^.-.a  V-ia 
!'"■  VM-HlMMMUl 


h^.'fe.'xa  |  HpS-fa  | 


n%u, 

FRp 


|!lii  mVi'-E;] 


P  5 


■: 


E-?  T  J>r  ■■■!-■>:*,  |;_c  ■*] 


EyJ^Fiw 
r  a-  min  |i?t:  *j 


■  ’fh.  |  [■□hm 


▲Defining  the 

PARAMETERS  OF  THE 
PLAYBACK  CONTROLS 


There  are  two 
step-time  note  entry 
methods.  Simple  entry 
is  designed  for  basic 
editing  using  an  on-screen  palette  of 
tools,  and  offers  a  useful  command  for 
checking  the  notes  you’ve  inserted 
against  the  time  signature  to  ensure  you 
have  only  the  requisite  number. 

By  contrast,  speedy  entry  is  designed 
to  be  used  in  conjunction  with  a  MIDI 
keyboard  to  provide  a  fast  and  efficient 
method  of  entering  notes  using  the 
computer’s  own  numeric  keypad  and 
various  key  commands.  Without  a 
manual  for  referral,  it  takes  a  bit  of 
getting  used  to  (one  wonders  why  the 
more  easily  labelled  F-keys  couldn’t  have 


been  used),  but  it  does  offer 
a  quicker  way  of  working, 
particularly  with  the  Mass 
Mover  function,  which  makes 
it  easy  to  copy  and  move 
around  large  chunks  of  music. 

For  those  only  satisfied  with 
real-time  note  entry,  Allegro  also 
includes  Flyperscribe,  an  impressive 
feature  designed  to  translate  'live’ 
performances  instantly  into  written 
scores.  Users  provide  their 
own  metronome  'pulse’ 
which  the  application  will 
follow,  irrespective  of  any 
fluctuations  in  tempo.  You 
can  input  metronome  tempo 
data  by  tapping  a  note  on  a 
footswitch,  MIDI  keyboard  or 
other  MIDI  device,  then  leave 
it  to  Hyperscribe  to  place  the 
notes  and  rests  ofyour 
performance  in  relation  to  it. 
There’s  something  quite 
fascinating  about  watching 
your  performance  appear  in  front  ofyou 
as  a  written  score,  and  Allegro  does  a 
good  job  of  interpreting  your  intentions 
and  correcting  minor  mistakes. 

Also  included  are  38  score  templates 
covering  most  types  of  composition: 
choral,  guitar,  piano/vocal  duet  -  all  the 
way  up  to  full  orchestral  works.  There’s 
also  a  series  oftutorial  videos,  although 
learning  to  use  Allegro  is  straightforward, 
provided  you’re  musically  literate  -  and 
it’s  hard  to  imagine  a  program  like  this 
being  of  interest  to  anyone  who’s  not. 

Nigel  Lord 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★ 

Price  £179  (£152.50  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Et  Cetera  0 1 706  228039 

www.  coda  music,  com 

Good  Points  Fast  and  easy  to  use ,  whether 
you’re  printingscores  or  playing  them 
through  a  MIDI  system 
Bad  Points  A  little  expensive , 
particularly  when  compared  to  sequencers , 
many  of  which  include  their  own  score 
writing  facilities 

Conclusion  A  relatively  pain-free 
introduction  to  computer  music  -  if  you 
know  the  score 


J 


96 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


NEW  PRODUC 


HP  DeskJet  815C 

Lie  back  and  bask  in  glorious  technicolour  because  it  looks  as  though  HP  has  done  it  again. 


Atop  resolution  of 

600x600dpi  is  nothing 
to  shout  about  in  this 
age  of  megapixel  printers, 
but  two  bits  of  HP 
technology  -  PhotoREt 
and  ColorSmart  - 
make  this  sort  of 
statistic  redundant. 

PhotoREt  uses  photo 
cartridges  to  provide 
more  detailed  pastel  colours 
for  photo  quality  images,  while 
ColorSmart  optimises  colour  output 
and  enhances  the  colour  clarity  of 
low-resolution  images,  such  as  those 
from  the  Internet,  by  bringing  them 
into  focus.  These  paid  off,  and  the 
81  5C  produced  stunning  photo  quality 
output  with  vibrant  colours  and  realistic 
skin  tones,  which  are  traditionally 
difficult  to  produce.  There  was  no 
evidence  of  any  banding. 

Text  output  was  also  excellent,  and 


the  81 5C  churned 
out  full 
pages  of 
1 2pt  text  in 
‘normal’ 
quality  at  a 
rate  of 
around 
three  pages 
per  minute. 
Standard 

business  letters  would  have  less 
coverage  and  so  arrive  more 
quickly.  The  81 5C  scored  an 
impressive  81 .41%  in  our  quality 
performance  tests.  Areas  of  solid  black 
had  uniform  coverage  and  regular 
photocopier  paper  did  not  suffer  from 
excessive  rippling  or  curling.  The  printer 
has  a  standard  2Mb  of  RAM  installed, 
plus  eight  resident  fonts,  as  well  as  input 
and  output  trays  for  1 00  and  50  pages 
respectively.  HP  has  supplemented  the 
standard  parallel  connection  with  a  USB 


port,  while  retaining  basic  compatibility 
with  Windows  3.1  and  even  DOS, 
although  you’ll  have  to  stick  with  the 
parallel  option  here. 

In  all,  this  is  another  impressive 
printer  from  Hewlett  Packard,  and  one 
that  proves  that  higher  resolutions  are 
not  the  be-all  and  end-all  of  photo 
quality  printing. 

Nik  Rawlinson 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £179  (£152.50  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Hewlett  Packard  0990  474747 

www.hp.com 

Good  Points  USB ,  fast,  excellent 
photo  output 

Bad  Points  Can  reproduce  small  fonts , 
but  there  are  others  on  the  market  that 
can  go  smaller 

Conclusion  An  impressive  addition  to  the 
HP  stable 


Infra-red  for  desktops 

They  say  that  the  best  things  in  life  are  free  -  wire-free. 


Want  a  bargain  PC  upgrade? 

We’ve  just  transformed  a 
PC  by  fitting  it  with  4Mb 
infra-red  forjust£10!  Sure,  forthcoming 
radio  technologies  like  Bluetooth  don’t 
worry  about  line  of  sight  and  multiple 
devices,  but  what  about  today’s 
products?  Almost  all  notebooks  and 
PDAs  are  fitted  with  IR,  as  are  several 
digital  cameras  and  mobile  phones,  but 
no  desktop  PCs.  This  is  frustrating, 
because  I R  easily  solves  the  eternal 
problem  of  transferring  information 
between  desktop  PCs  and  notebooks. 

You  can  buy  external  1 15Kbit/sec 
serial-1  R  adaptors  for  around  £100, 
but  surprisingly,  most  desktop  PC 
motherboards  feature  a  neglected 
five-pin  jumper  labelled  IrDA.  After  much 
trawling,  we  ordered  an  Asus  Pent  II 
440LX/BX  IrDA  module  on  the  Dabs 
Direct  website.  The  next  day  we  received 
a  tiny  board  featuring  a  pair  of  LEDs  and 
a  cable,  but  no  manual.  We  connected  it 


to  an  Asus  P2B  motherboard,  set 
‘UART2  to  use  IR’  in  the  BIOS,  started 
Windows  98  and  leapt  for  joy  when  the 
OS  recognised  a  plug  and  play  infra-red 
port  and  self-installed  the  drivers;  even 
Windows  2000  Beta  3  recognised  it. 


Now  we  no  longer  use  a  cable  to 
connect  notebooks,  Psion  5  or  Sony 
DSC-F1  digital  cameras  to  this  PC  -  they 
transfer  data  at  up  to  11 5Kbit/sec.  No 
wires,  no  software  -  it  just  works. 

Okay,  the  motherboard  hails  from 
Asus,  which  also  makes  the  module,  but 
many  other  boards,  including  older 
Socket-7  models,  feature  the  same 
five-pin  I R  connector.  Believe  us,  it’s  the 
best  tenner  you’ll  ever  spend. 

Gordon  Laing 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★★★ 

Price  £1 1 .75  (£10  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Dabs  Direct  0870  129  3000 


www.hp.com 

Good  Points  Desktop  IP  for  only  a  tenner 
Bad  Points  Your  motherboard  may  not 
support  it 

Conclusion  Best  upgrade  we’ve  ever  made 


J 


98 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Compaq  Armada  1750 

An  impressive-sounding  notebook  that  doesn’t  live  up  to  its  specifications. 


Open  up  the  Armada  and  the 
first  thing  that  strikes  you  is 
the  screen.  The  14.1  in  clear, 
crisp  TFT  display  fills  almost  the  entire 
inside  ofthe  lid.  Add  to  this  a  366MHz 
Pentium  II  processor,  64Mb  of  RAM, 
a  6.4Gb  hard  drive  and  room  fora 
24x  CD-ROM,  floppy  drive,  modem 
and  battery  in  the  main  unit  and 
you  have,  at  least  on  paper,  a 
very  formidable  notebook. 

The  reality,  sadly,  does  not 
quite  deliver. 

The  first  gripe  we  had  with  the 
Armada  was  the  location  ofthe  keys. 
Windows  NT  was  preloaded,  but  the 
unconventional  placing  ofthe  Function 
and  Delete  keys  meant  that  it  was  at 
least  five  minutes  before  we  could  find 
the  Ctrl+Alt+  Delete  combination  to  log 
on.  We  also  found  the  keyboard  on  the 
Armada  slightly  too  springy  resulting  in  a 
rather  strange  sensation  after  a  short 
period  oftyping,  although  this  is  more  a 


matter  of 
personal 
preference. 

Once  into 
Windows,  the 
integrated  touch 
pad  was  at  best 
erratic  and  at 
worst  unreliable. 
Placing  a  finger  on 
the  touch  pad 
could  cause  the 
cursor  to  jump  to  a 
new,  unspecified  part 
ofthe  screen.  Tapping 
it  would  result  in  a 

random  selection  from  one  of  left  click, 
click  and  hold,  and  double  click. 

The  inclusion  ofa  CD-ROM,  floppy 
drive  and  battery  made  the  unit  quite 
heavy,  and  it  definitely  seemed  too  bulky 
for  the  flimsy  extendable  feet  on  the 
bottom  ofthe  case. 

Plus  points  for  the  Armada  were  the 


addition  ofa  USB  port,  a  standard 
composite  TV  out  socket,  good  speakers 
and  an  integrated  mains  power  supply. 

Will  Head 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

irk 

Price  £2,149.08  (£1,829  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Compaq  0845  270  4000 

www.  Compaq,  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Large  clear  screen.  Room  for 
battery,  CD-ROM  and  floppy  drive  in  the 
main  unit 

Bad  Points  Inaccurate  touch  pad.  Overly 
springy  keyboard 

Conclusion  A  well  specified  machine  let  down 
by  poor  build  quality  and  a  lack  of  attention  to 
detail 


Performance  results  d 

w 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

Vlark  9 

143 

BAPCo  Sysmark  Windows  95  test  scores 

k _ 

_ j 

Mag  LT561 E  TFT 

A  multimedia  monitor  which  looks  stylish  but  at  the  expense  ofthe  display. 


This  new  1  5in  TFT  from  Mag 
certainly  looks 
stylish.  The  sides  of 
the  casing  slope  outwards 
slightly  in  a  departure 
from  the  usual  white  box 
approach.  Flowever,  this 
does  play  the 
unfortunate  visual  trick 
of  making  the  sides  of 
the  panel  appear 
crooked.  The  display  is 
generally  good,  and 
apart  from  a  couple  of 
small  dark  patches  in  the 
right-hand  corners,  it  is  bright 
and  crisp.  No  dead  pixels  are 
visible.  The  display  coped 
impressively  with  Half-Life,  keeping  up 
with  the  complex  textures.  On  the  bad 
side,  colours  are  not  displayed 
uniformly,  appearing  brighter  at  the  base 
and  generally  looking  washed  out. 

Mag  is  hoping  to  sell  this  monitor  on 


the  back 
of  its 

multimedia 
ability, 

although  this 
is  hardly 
unusual 
anymore. 
There’s  a 
handy  USB 
hub  located  at 
the  rear, 
together  with 
an  audio-in 
port  and  the 
analog  D-SUB 
connection,  all  of 
which  are  easily 
accessible.  The  sound  from  the  monitor 
is  fairly  tinny,  as  you  might  expect  from 
speakers  of  such  a  small  size,  although  it 
is  possible  to  get  quite  a  high  volume 
from  them  without  any  audible 
distortion. 


The  OSD  is  user-friendly,  with  the 
buttons  arranged  to  fit  in  with  the 
general  design.  Two  dedicated  buttons 
allow  you  to  turn  the  volume  up  and 
down  with  one  touch.  The  menu  system 
is  easy  to  navigate,  with  all  the  usual 
options  available.  An  auto  adjustment 
program  will  set  the  various  clock  phase 
and  colour  settings  for  you,  although  to 
achieve  the  best  results  you  would  be 
advised  to  fiddle. 

Jason  Jenkins 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★ 

Price  £904.75  (£770  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Mag  0 1 1 8  975  2445 

www.  magtechnology.  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Multimedia  capability, 
powered  USB  hub 

Bad  Points  Display  could  be  better 
Conclusion  A  respectable  all  rounder  but 
nothing  particularly  special 


j 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


101 


CTS 


Mediator  5  Pro  Edition 

Get  yourself  noticed  and  turn  a  few  heads  with  this  neat  little  presentation  package. 


Presentation  software 
has  moved  on 
somewhat  since  the 
birth  ofapplications  such  as 
PowerPoint.  This  particular 
example  allows  you  to 
combine  the  use  of 
photography,  film  and  video, 
music  and  sound,  and  of 
course,  text.  Mediator  5  is  the 
latest  version  of  this 
award-winning  multimedia 
presentation  package. 

As  applications  go,  this 
one  is  relatively  easy  to  use, 
especially  considering  what 
you  can  do  with  it.  However,  despite 
this  apparent  ease,  it  may  still  require 
a  fair  bit  of  getting  used  to.  For  those 
who  are  unfamiliar  with  the  previous 
Mediator,  it  would  be  worth  using  the 
video  tutor  to  show  you  the  three 
main  steps  you’ll  need  to  know  for  all 
documents.  After  this,  it  is 
recommended  that  you  go  through 
the  supplied  manual  and  follow  all  the 
examples  therein.  There  is  also  a 
wizard  option  to  help  you  create 
different  types  of  tern  plate  for  your 
projects.  These  range  from  photo  albums 
to  video  sequences. 

The  user  interface  is  set  out  like  your 
word  processor,  with  the  main  menu  at 
the  top  ofthe  screen  and  the  toolbar 
down  the  left-hand  side,  immediately 
accessible  and  clear  as  to  what  they  are. 
You  can  also  choose  to  keep  certain 
dialogs  open  while  you  work,  such  as  your 
Page  List  or  Object  List.  This  makes  it 
easier  to  keep  track  of  what  you’re  doing 
and  how  much  you  have  done. 

This  edition  contains  lots  of  new 
features  which  help  you  add  a 
professional  look  to  your  finished 
projects,  while  making  it  all  the  more 
interesting  to  work  with.  You  can 
experiment  with  PhotoShop-type  effects, 
such  as  adding  a  glow  or  shadow  effect  to 
an  object,  or  use  the  alpha  channel  to  add 
transparency.  There  is  also  the 
opportunity  to  create  3D  images  by 
adding  a  ‘Bumpmap’  on  top  of  an  object 
to  apply  this  effect. 

You  can  either  start  from  scratch  or 
use  the  predefined  templates/projects. 
Additionally,  you  aren’t  confined  to  the 


A  You  can  apply 

PhotoShop-type  supplied 

effects  as  well  as  pictures,  videos 

ANIMATE  ANY  OBJECT  or  SOUnds,  as 

you  can  use 

your  own  files  and  add  material. 

By  assigning  hotspots  and  hypertext 
within  your  main  pictures,  you  can  also 
make  your  presentations  interactive.  For 
example,  by  giving  the  appropriate 
instructions,  you  can  tell  Mediator  to 
display  text,  go  to  another  page,  or  play 
a  sound.  This  drag  and  drop  process 
does  take  quite  some  time,  however,  and 
you  have  to  repeat  the  whole  procedure 
wherever  you  want  to  apply  it,  rather 
than  simply  copying  it  over.  At  times,  the 
supplied  manual,  which  is  otherwise  very 
helpful,  gets  a  bit  ahead  of  itself  and 
leaves  you  struggling  to  see  where  it 
went.  You  may  have  to  refer  back  to 
earlier  examples  just  to  keep  up,  which 
becomes  quite  irritating. 

The  potential  level  of  interactivity  that 
you  can  include  may  seem  daunting  and 
unattainable  at  first.  Once  you’ve  got  the 
hang  of  it,  though,  it  shouldn’t  take  too 
long  to  complete  the  lengthy  procedures, 


so  any  frustration  may  ease. 
Once  you  see  your  finished 
page  or  project  in  action,  you 
will  see  how  easy  it  is  to  create  a 
good  presentation. 

Other  bonuses  make  up  for 
any  shortfalls.  Mediator  5 
comes  with  an  extra  utility, 
MatchWare  Screencorder, 
which  lets  you  record  whatever 
is  happening  on  the  screen. 

This  is  ideal  for 
training  purposes 
and 

demonstrating 
howto  use  other 
types  of  software, 
and  is  what  the 
manufacturers 
have  used  in  the 
Mediator  5  video 
tutorials. 

The  package 
would  prove  ideal 
for  teachers  as 
you  can  create 
educational 
presentations, 
which  allow  pupils  to  interact  with  the 
subject  and  see  where  they  may  be  right 
or  wrong.  One  ofthe  exercises  in  the 
manual  provides  a  good  example  ofthis. 
Additionally,  you  can  distribute  the 
presentation  to  a  number  of  computers 
without  having  to  install  Mediator  5  on 
each  ofthem.  You  can  email  it,  burn  it  to 
CD-ROM  or  save  it  to  a  floppy  disk. 

Helen  Fortgang 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  £292.58  (£249  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Match  Ware  0181  940  9700 

www.  match  ware,  net 

Good  Points  Professional  effects.  Broad 
range  of  media.  Reasonable  price 
Bad  Points  Time  consuming  procedures 
Conclusion  A  versatile  and  extensive 
package,  Mediator  5  allows  the  user  to 
create  original  and  engagingpresentations. 

It  is  ideal  for  personal  use  as  well  as  a 
business  and/or  learning  environment 
System  Requirements  Windows 
95/98,  or  Windows  NT 4. 0;  486 
processor;  1 6  Mb  of  RAM;  256  colours; 
true  fonts;  CD-ROM  drive 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


103 


TMC  TI6VG4  motherboard 


The  mother  of  motherboards  lets  you  avoid  data  rush-hours. 


Long  before  the  CPU 

manufacturers  start  touting 
host  frequencies  of 
133MHz,  we  will  be  seeing 
both  supporting 
motherboards  and  PCI  33 
memory.  So  we  took  full 
advantage  of  the  opportunity  to 
test  TMCs  TI6N  BFV+ 
motherboard  while  overriding  the 
Slot  1  setting  auto-detect.  With 
the  opening  of  one  jumper,  tentatively 
titled  Host  Frequency  Force  Selector,  a 
Pentium  II  was  running  on  a  front  side 
bus  frequency  of  133MHz. 

VIA’s  Apollo  Pro  Plus  provides  the 
PCI  33  support.  The  final  release  of  this 
board  will  also  take  advantage  of  the 
chipset’s  AGP4x  support,  although  this 
was  not  available  in  this  early  build. 

In  addition  there  are  six  PCI  slots, 
including  one  shared  with  an  ISA  for 
those  legacy  cards,  and  an  option  for  up 
to  64Mb  of  on-board  SDRAM  in 
addition  to  three  DIMM  sockets. 

Support  for  the  new  EIDE  interface 
protocol  UDMA66  is  currently  only 
available  courtesy  ofVIA’s  chipset.  Two 


variations  of 
this  board  feature 
non-UDMA66  supporting 
Intel  chipsets.  The  main  thrust  of 
UDMA66  is  its  ability  to  open  up  any 
potential  bottlenecks  on  data  transfers 
between  devices  such  as  hard  disks  and 
the  PCI  bus. 

Specifically  testing  potential  PCI  33 
performance,  we  ran  our  performance 
benchmarks  with  128Mb  of  PCI  33 
memory  and  the  more  modest  PCI  00 
memory  on  a  reduced  host  frequency. 

The  results  returned  showed 
unremarkable  increases  in  performance, 
although  our  benchtests  are  designed  to 
measure  overall  system  performances 
rather  than  particularly  memory  hungry 
applications  that  would  enjoy  the 
increased  data  transfer  rate  of  a  higher 
host  clock  frequency. 

Ian  Robson 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★★ 

Price  £69.35  (£59  ex  VAT) 

Contact  TMC  Technology  (UK)  Co  Ltd 
01438  842305 

www.  tmc-uk.  com 

Good  Points  PCI 33,  UDMA66,  AGP4x 
and  Pentium  III  support 
Bad  Points  Currently  available  without 
fully  supporting  processors 
Conclusion  With  PCI 33  SDRAM  pricing 
likely  to  be  equal  to  that  of  PC  1 00  this 
board  provides  a  far  cheaper  solution  than 
that  of  Direct  RAMBUS.  The  enhanced 
features  support  at  this  price  adds  to  the 
argument  for  more  third  party  chipset 
solution  providers 


Elsa  Microlink  Office 

The  little  white  box  that  does  just  about  everything  -  if  you  can  get  it  to  work. 


The  Microlink  Office  from 

Elsa  claims  to  be  a  complete 
multimedia  solution  for 
individuals  and  small  businesses.  It  is  an 
external  modem  which  also  serves  as  a 
fax  and  answering  machine. 

The  modem’s  firmware  uses 
Rockwell’s  K56Flex  standard,  which  can 
be  flash  upgraded  to  V.90.  The 
Microlink  has  2Mb  of  memory  which 
can  store  up  to  70  fax  pages  or  1 5  voice 
messages.  Unfortunately,  the  memory 
cannot  be  upgraded.  The  speakerphone 
can  be  used  to  hold  a  hands-free 
conversation  although  you  do  need  a 
conventional  handset  to  dial  out  first. 

The  Microlink  Office  provides  access 
to  the  messages  from  a  remote  location. 
Unauthorised  access  can  be  controlled 
using  a  personal  identification  number. 
You  can  even  program  the  modem  to 


1  .^1 

ii 

ii-  11 

||TT^JCx-==,= 

Ej  ■  ■ 

send  an  automatic  reply  to  incoming 
messages.  However,  the  Microlink 
Office  cannot  be  configured  to  transfer 
the  messages  to  a  remote  PC.  Like  most 
external  modems,  this  one  has  a  set  of 
LEDs  at  the  front  which  display  its  status 


and  can  be  helpful  with  troubleshooting. 

Despite  Elsa’s  claims  ofthe  product 
being  plug  and  play  compatible,  we  had 
trouble  installing  it.  The  tweaking 
involved  in  getting  it  up  and  running 
could  be  well  beyond  novice  PC  users. 

Ajith  Ram 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★ 

Price  £11 9.1 4  (£139.99  inc  VAT) 

Contact  Elsa  01844261 872 

www.elsa.com 

Good  Points  Useful  manual,  answering 

machine,  fax,  speakerphone 

Bad  Points  Troublesome  installation, 

average  download  speeds 

Conclusion  A  device  which  does  not  quite 

match  up  to  its  competitors  in  terms  of 

performance,  features  and  price  j 


104 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


HEAD  TO  HE 


Visual  Web  editing  vs 

hand-rolled  HTML 


What  is  the  best  way  to  write 
Web  pages?  Diehard 
hand-coders  joke  about 
using  Visual  Notepad,  although  in 
fact,  they  are  more  likely  to  use  a 
programmer’s  tool  such  as  CodeWright 
or  a  dedicated  Web  editor  such  as 
Homesite.  At  the  other  extreme  are  page 
designers  who  never  want  to  see  a  line  of 
HTML  in  the  raw.  This  is  where  we  go 
head-to-head  with  the  two  methods. 


The  contenders 


CodeWright  -  an  all-purpose 
programmers’  editor 

Hand-coders  who  want  a  great 
programmers’  editor  need  look  no 
further  than  Premia’s  CodeWright.  This 
general-purpose  tool  can  be  used  for 
Java,  C++,  Delphi,  scripting,  or  anything 
else  you  care  to  name  as  long  as  it 
involves  writing  code.  It  still  includes 
features  such  as  colour-coding,  smart 
indentation  and  the  auto-completion 
of  keywords. 

There  are  also  some  useful  extras 
such  as  multiple  clipboards  and  a 
built-in  clipboard  viewer,  global 
bookmarks  that  allow  you  to  instantly 
recall  any  document,  quick  display  of  the 
differences  between  two  versions  of  the 
same  document,  and  macros  in  Perl  or 
Basic.  Through  a  selective  display 
feature,  you  can  make  CodeWright  a 
folding  editor,  hiding  most  ofthe 
document  while  you  work  on  a  small 


Three  evil  habits 

Visual  Web  editors  are  prone  to  three 
evil  habits.  The  first  is  proprietary  tags. 
Users  who  export  Powerpoint  slides 
or  create  exotic  effects  in  FrontPage, 
without  realising  that  someone  using 
Netscape  on  Linux  will  not  receive 
anything  resembling  the  intended 
results,  have  been  caught  by  the 
proprietary  tag  trap.  The  best  protection, 
aside  from  a  good  knowledge  of  HTML, 
is  reliable  validation. 

Next  comes  auto-changing  code.  No 
one  likes  editors  that  helpfully  reformat 
pre-existing  HTML  or  script,  breaking  it 


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part  of  it.  The  package  is  hugely  flexible, 
copes  easily  with  very  large  documents, 
understands  UNIX  line  endings  and  is 
generally  difficult  to  do  without  once  you 
get  to  know  it. 

Although  it  is  not  specifically 
designed  for  HTML,  CodeWright  has 
some  handy  features  for  Web  authoring. 
The  HTML  toolbar  is  a  quick  way  to 
enter  common  elements,  and  there  is 
a  dialog  for  parameter  completion. 

Many  tags  are  also  available  from  a 
right-click  pop-up  menu.  You  can  also 
display  a  browser  window  that  updates 
instantly  whenever  you  save  the  code. 


in  the  process.  Early  versions  of 
FrontPage  were  notorious  for  this, 
although  version  2000  is  a  great 
improvement. 

The  third  evil  is  code-bloat.  Some 
visual  editors  are  seemingly  incapable  of 
creating  a  document  without  inserting 
reams  ofun necessary  tags,  making 
them  slow  to  download  and  hard  to  fix. 
Again,  the  main  offenders  are 
improving,  although  if  you  try  to  create 
Web  pages  from  applications  such  as 
Microsoft  Publisher,  you  will  soon  run 
into  this  one. 


Dreamweaver  - 
the  totally  visual 
approach 

Macromedia’s 
Dreamweaver  is  a  visual 
page  editor  that  has  won 
friends  by  avoiding  the 
evil  habits  ofthe  species 
(see  panel  below).  It 
creates  efficient  code 
and  does  not  modify 
existing  code  or  scripts. 
Dreamweaver  is  a 
Macintosh-style 
application  with  lots  of 
floating  windows.  These 
include  the  editor,  a 
library,  a  template  and 
style  manager,  a 
▲  Fig  1  The  site  management 

first  challenge:  window,  an 

create  THIS  table  object  palette  or 

toolbox,  a 

property  inspector  that  allows  you  to 
modify  the  currently  selected  object,  a 
behaviour  inspector  for  attaching 
JavaScript  to  objects,  and  a  timeline 
inspector  for  building  animation 
sequences.  Dreamweaver  is  well  tuned 
to  dynamic  HTML  and  cascading  style 
sheets.  It’s  harder  for  newcomers  to 
learn  than  the  likes  of  FrontPage, 
because  it  does  not  have  the  look  and 
feel  of  a  word  processor.  One  problem 
is  that  the  built-in  HTML  and  script 
editors  are  little  better  than  Notepad, 
but  to  be  fair,  Homesite  4.0  is  bundled 
as  part  ofthe  package  and  an  external 
editor  button  takes  you  straight  to  it. 

Round  1:  creating  a  table 

The  first  task  we  tackled  was  creating  a 
table.  We  wanted  a  bold,  clear  table  with 
sub-headings  and  bullet  points  [Fig  1  ] 
but  this  was  not  quite  as  easy  as  it 
looked.  In  theory,  you  should  use 
cascading  style  sheets,  but  not  every 
browser  supports  them  and  it  is  hard  to 
achieve  consistent  results. 

The  other  option  is  to  use  a  standard 
HTML  table  to  obtain  indented  text.  We 
wanted  a  border  around  the  table  but 
not  around  each  individual  cell. 

However,  you  cannot  turn  off  the  cell 
borders  easily,  so  the  best  approach  is  to 
nest  a  borderless  table  within  a  single-cell 


110 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


What  you  see  is  what  you  get  -  sometimes 


Some  people  foam  at  the  mouth  and 
flail  their  arms  at  talk  ofWYSIWYG  Web 
editors.  The  reason  is  that  the  concept 
strictly  does  not  apply  to  Web  pages. 
Part  ofthe  HTML  concept  is  that  the 
browser,  as  customised  by  the  user, 
determines  the  look  of  a  page.  For 
instance,  images  might  be  on  or  off,  the 
text  size  is  variable  and  the  size  ofthe 
browser  window  is  unpredictable.  There 
are  also  tags  such  as  <EM>,  meaning 


emphasised,  that  do  not  specify  an 
implementation.  Most  browsers  render 
it  as  bold,  but  in  theory  it  could  be 
double-underlined,  in  red,  ora  louder 
voice  in  a  speech  reader.  No  Web  editor 
is  really  WYSIWYG. 

Less  sensitive  types  appreciate  that 
many  ofthe  features  ofWYSIWYG  can 
be  implemented  in  Web  browsers.  If 
your  Web  editor  shows  a  fair  impression 
of  how  a  page  might  look  when 


rendered  in  a  browser,  as  opposed  to 
showing  lots  of  plain  text  and  angle 
brackets,  then  it  is  in  the  spirit  of 
WYSIWYG.  It  might  be  safer  to  talk 
about  visual  editors,  though,  in  case  you 
meet  the  guy  with  the  foaming  mouth.  If 
you  really  want  WYSIWYG  on  the  Web, 
look  at  Adobe  PDF  (Portable  Document 
Format)  and  the  Acrobat  viewer,  a 
cross-platform  solution  that  preserves 
the  exact  appearance  of  a  page. 


Table  cvampEi] 

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◄Creating  a  table 
with  Dreamweaver. 
The  floating  windows 

CAN  MOVE  ANYWHERE  ON 
THE  DESKTOP,  IN  TRUE 

Macintosh  style 


bordered  table.  Another  problem  is  that 
if  you  use  standard  HTML  paragraph 
styles  fora  bulleted  list,  such  as  <ul>  and 
<li>,  it  is  impossible  to  control  the  line 
spacing  satisfactorily.  To  resolve  this,  we 
used  a  .gif  image  forthe  bullet  and 
avoided  paragraph  styles. 

We  did  this  first  in  CodeWright.  It  is 
surprisingly  easy  to  lay  out  a  table  in 
code,  even  one  with  a  few  merged  cells, 
since  there  are  very  few  tags  to  worry 
about:  just  <table>,  <tr>  and  <td>.  It 
does  help  to  sketch  out  what  you  want 
beforehand,  even  using  old-fashioned 
pencil  and  paper.  Once  we  had  done 
this,  it  all  worked  exactly  as  expected. 
Nesting  a  table  is  a  doddle  -  you  just 
create  the  innertable  and  then  surround 
it  with  the  opening  and  closing  tags  for 
the  outer  table.  Changingyour  mind 
about  the  width  ofthe  empty  cells  is 
tiresome,  though,  because  each  cell 
has  to  be  edited  individually.  With  a 
graphical  editor,  you  can  just  drag  the 
width  ofthe  column  or  select  a  column 
and  edit  a  property. 

CodeWright  was  good,  but  creating 
the  same  table  in  Dreamweaver  was  even 
easier.  The  generated  code  was  virtually 
the  same  and  the  task  was  handled  more 
quickly.  We  tried  to  avoid  nesting  the 


tables  by  giving  the 
table  a  border  and 
setting  the  border 
colour  attribute  of 
individual  cells  to 
an  invisible  white. 
Then  we  ran 
Dreamweaver’s 
Check  Target 
Browsers, 
selecting  Netscape 
4.0.  Rightly,  it  told  us  that  the  border 
colour  attribute  was  not  supported. 

The  real  challenge  is  working  out  how 
to  get  the  desired  result.  For  this  type  of 
experimentation,  we  would  rather  use 
CodeWright.  Using  a  visual  editor  such 
as  Dreamweaver,  you  can  have  a  table 
lookingjust  right  in  the  designer,  but  find 
the  spacing  is  different  when  previewed 
in  the  browser.  When  you  know  what 
you  want,  though,  the  visual  approach  is 
quicker  and  easier  for  tables. 

Round  2:  a  rollover  effect 

This  task  was  simple  enough.  We  wanted 
a  button  whose  image  changed  as  the 
mouse  passed 


over  it.  To  create 
this  you  need 
some  JavaScript, 
but  even  users  of 
visual  editors  are 
in  luck  because 


tools  such  as  Dreamweaver  and 
FrontPage  2000  have  wizards  that  will  do 
the  job  for  you.  In  Dreamweaver,  it’s  a 
simple  matter  of  choosing  Insert  Rollover 
Image  and  selecting  two  image  files  in  a 
dialog.  A  nice  touch  is  the  option  to 
preload  images,  which  inserts  some  extra 
code  that  loads  the  required  images  into 
an  array  when  the  page  first  opens. 

Adding  scripts  in  CodeWright  is 
particularly  easy  since  the  package  does 
not  really  distinguish  between  script  and 
other  HTML  elements.  One  annoyance  is 
that  by  default,  CodeWright  shows 
comments  in  HTML  pages  in  green 
italics.  Unfortunately,  it  is  common 
practice  to  place  JavaScript  functions 
within  comment  tags,  to  help  support 
down-level  browsers.  Green  italics  are 
horrible,  so  you  have  to  remember  to 
add  the  comments  last,  or  otherwise 
tweak  CodeWright’ s  parsing  to  prevent 
this  effect. 

When  you  add  an  image  to  a  Web 
page,  the  width  and  height  should  be 
specified  to  speed  up  the  rendering  of 
the  page.  Dedicated  Web  editors  will  tell 
you  the  size  ofthe  graphic,  but  using 
CodeWright,  you  have  to  look  this  up 
using  a  bitmap  editor. 

A  key  point  is  that  in  CodeWright, 
you  have  to  find  out  howto  write  the 
script,  whereas  in  this  instance 
Dreamweaver  does  it  for  you.  This  is  the 


►Adding  a  rollover 

EFFECT  WITH  CODEWRIGHT. 

Note  the  handy  browser 

PREVIEW  ABOVE  THE  EDITOR 
WINDOW,  AND  THE  HTML 
TOOLBAR  AND  POP-UP  MENU 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


111 


■  J  UU  Abh«1  H*  -it  W  * 

-  -  j  ■-  =■  -  m  '■  ‘  -*  :J 


* 


J1  "J- 


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■  i  kC*#n^>* 


':c-r 


u'njmc  -Dkw-H  ■  ■ 


◄  HOMESITE  IS  A 
SUPERB  EDITOR 
WITH  EXTRA 
FEATURES  FOR 
BUILDING  WEB 
PAGES 


Halim  tr  miuNhpIc 

Pan  fti  iwi  "HrlH  nr  Nf**p*-  ia  up  iM  mT-'h 


if1 

a 


-  ***-*-#- 

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exception,  though,  because  there  are  not 
many  script  wizards  in  Dreamweaver. 

While  both  tools  create  the  effect 
easily,  there  are  some  differences. 
Although  the  functionality  is  the  same, 
Dreamweaver’s  page  is  twice  the  size  of 
CodeWright’s  and  the  script  is 
unnecessarily  complex  because  it  is 
dealing  with  a  general  case.  That  also 
makes  it  harder  to  tweak  the  code.  The 
hand-coded  approach  forces  you  to 
understand  what  the  script  is  doing. 

CodeWright  is  better  than 
Dreamweaver  for  scripting,  but  to  be 
honest,  a  dedicated  tool  such  as 
Microsoft’s  Visual  Interdev  which  offers 
pop-up  code  completion,  colour  coding, 
and  debugging  tools  such  as  a  watch 
window  and  breakpoints.  There  is  also 
a  script  outline  window,  including  a  view 
ofthe  document  object  model  and  the 
ability  to  insert  an  instant  event  handler 
by  double-clicking. 

The  joker  in  the  pack 

Dreamweaver  finishes  this  contest  a 
nose  ahead.  Its  generated  code  is  good, 
it  is  faster  to  work  with  and  the  rich 
HTML-specific  features  pull  it  ahead. 
What  clinches  it,  though,  is  Homesite 


4.0  (see  panel 
below),  a 
programmers’ 
editor  designed 
specifically  for 
HTML. 

■  Homesite  has 
most  ofthe 
advantages  of 
CodeWright, 

plus  a  stack  of  additional  features 
including  an  integrated  validator  and 
rich  online  HTML  reference.  Homesite 


skills  are  involved,  including  creating 
content,  visual  design  and  programming. 
Few,  if  any,  are  good  at  every  aspect  and 
the  same  is  true  ofthe  tools.  Here,  then, 
are  a  few  tips: 

There  is  no  need  to  be  snooty  about 
using  visual  editors,  which  can  save  a 
lot  of  time.  But  you  need  to  choose 
your  editor  carefully.  Dreamweaver  is 
excellent,  but  many  visual  editors  create 
poor  HTML  that  at  worst  may  not  even 
display  properly  in  your  target  browsers. 
The  worst  case  is  applications  that  are 
really  for  word  processing,  DTP  or 
presentation  graphics.  It  is  asking  a  lot 
to  expect  top-notch  Web  pages  from 
such  a  tool. 

Visual  editors  are  useful,  but  you 
need  to  be  able  to  drop  easily  into  HTML 
to  produce  excellent  Web  pages.  Using 
an  editor  such  as  Homesite  or  even 


Homesite  -  the  dedicated  HTML  editor 


Allaire’s  Homesite  is  still  essentially  a 
text  editor  with  an  array  of  features  to 
speed  up  HTML  coding.  There  is  even  a 
design  view  which  is  close  to  WYSIWYG, 
although  Allaire  insists  it  is  only  for 
prototyping.  Most  ofthe  time  you  will 
be  looking  at  raw  HTML  code,  although 
there  is  a  myriad  of  features  to  speed  the 
editing  process.  For  example,  ifyou 
right-click  and  choose  InsertTag,  a  tag 
chooser  dialog  opens,  with  tags 

vs  Dreamweaver  would  be  an  agonising 
choice,  except  that  the  two  are  bundled 
together  -  almost  a  dream  come  true. 

Whatever  choice  you  make,  the  most 
important  thing  is  to  use  tools  that  let 
you  work  with  different  editors  on  the 
same  page  without  scrambling  your  code 
in  the  process.  Dreamweaver,  FrontPage 
2000  and  Visual  Interdev  are  all  good, 
while  NetObjects  Fusion  or  earlier 
versions  of  FrontPage  are  problematic. 


*Mp  lp  r**—  nH  nug  Jsdii  vi  t-  im 

■101 JU 

- 

r  -  -  aft 

.  *  a- 

- 

>  >  A  J  ■  !  ■ 

'»  jU 

1  Vju 

Final  tips 

One  ofthe 
problems  with 
Web  design  is 
that  so  many 


◄There  is  no  problem 

USING  TWO  EDITORS  FOR 
WORKING  ON  A  PAGE,  AS 
IN  THIS  EXAMPLE  USING 

Visual  InterDev  and 
Dreamweaver.  If 

ANOTHER  EDITOR  CHANGES 
THE  PAGE,  IT  WILL 
BE  RELOADED 


organised  in  an  easily  managed  tree 
view.  Selecting  a  tag  opens  a  custom 
dialog  where  you  can  add  attributes 
and  content,  with  guidance  on  browser- 
specific  elements.  The  tabbed  editor  has 
a  browse  view  for  quick  preview.  Press 
Shift-F6  and  the  validator  kicks  in,  listing 
any  errors  or  warnings  in  an  output 
window  with  hyperlinks  to  the  source. 
This  is  a  great  combination  of  hands-on 
HTML,  with  well  thought  out  extras. 

CodeWright  gives  experts  a  comfortable 
and  fast  environment  for  working  with 
the  code  and  also  offers  beginners  the 
best  opportunities  for  learning. 

Ifyou  are  expecting  to  do  serious 
amounts  of  scripting,  use  a  tool  designed 
for  the  job. 

However  you  produce  your  Web 
pages,  use  a  validator  to  check  the  code 
for  errors  and  incompatibilities. 

Tim  Anderson 


PCW  DETAILS 


Homesite  4.0 

Price  £75  (£88. 13  inc  VAT ) 

www.  a  I  la  ire.  com 

available  from  System  Science 
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available  from  System  Science 
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Dreamweaver  2.0 
Price  £229. 00  (£269. 08  inc  VAT) 
www-euro.  macromedia.  com 
01344  458600 


J 


112 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


M  A 


anagement, 


Setting  up 

AN  EMAIL 
SERVER  TO 
PROVIDE  AN 
EXTERNAL 
CONNECTION 
VIA  THE 

Internet 
needn't  be 

A  TIRESOME 

task.  Nigel 
Whitfield 
shows  YOU 

HOW  CAREFUL 
PLANNING  CAN 
HELP  GET  THE 
MESSAGE 
ACROSS. 


Most  offices  have 
email  of  some  sort 
set  up  on  their 
internal  network, 
and  increasingly  they 
have  a  connection  to 
the  Internet.  In  many 

cases,  however,  the  two  aren't  linked.  Whatever 
the  internal  email  system  you  use,  and  whatever 
type  of  net  connection,  linking  the  two  together 
to  provide  an  external  email  connection  via  the 
Internet  can  be  tricky;  but  a  little  planning  and 
forethought  will  make  it  a  simpler  and  more 
manageable  task.  Manageability  in  particular  can 
be  an  important  issue,  especially  for  a  smaller 
company,  where  looking  after  the  email  is  likely 
to  be  delegated  to  someone  who  might  be  the 
network  administrator  as  well  as  having  a  full¬ 
time  role  in  another  department. 

Before  you  look  at  ways  to  connect  your 
existing  internal  email  system  to  the  rest  of  the 
world,  you  need  to  decide  if  it  suits  your  needs. 
Does  the  internal  system  have  quirks  and 
annoying  features?  Does  it  regularly  fall  over  and 
require  a  lot  of  administrator  attention?  If  so, 
this  might  be  a  good  opportunity  to  replace  it. 

If  you're  using  simple  workgroup  email  on 
Windows  PCs,  would  you  benefit  from  a  more 
sophisticated  solution,  like  Novell  GroupWise, 
which  will  help  manage  workflow  of  documents 
between  users?  Or  would  the  central  database 
approach  of  Lotus  Notes  make  it  easier  for 


people  in  your  organisation  to  access  the 
information  they  need? 

Whatever  the  decision,  now  is  the  time  to 
make  it;  adding  an  Internet  email  link  can  be, 
though  not  necessarily,  an  expensive  thing  to  do. 
Buying  software  that  will  have  to  be  replaced  if 
you  change  your  mail  system  will  only  make 
things  more  so. 

If  you're  happy  with  your  internal  mail 
system,  a  straightforward  solution  for  many 
people  is  to  simply  add  on  an  email  'gateway5 
service,  which  will  act  as  a  bridge  for  emails  to 
and  from  the  outside  world.  But  while  a  gateway 
will  work,  it  might  not  be  the  best  choice.  The 
type  of  gateway  software  and  hardware  available 
will  depend  on  the  setup  you  have  already,  and 
the  software  certainly  is  unlikely  to  be  easy  to 
move  between  different  hardware  systems. 

Hardware  and  software 
options 

While  your  existing  internal  email  solution  may 
just  be  implemented  in  software  —  perhaps 
with  a  shared  'post  office'  set  of  directories  on  a 
common  hard  disk  —  when  it  comes  to  linking 
this  to  the  Internet,  you  will  need  a  more 
sophisticated  setup.  Firstly,  if  your  internal  email 
package  doesn't  run  on  a  server,  it  has  to  rely  on 
individual  email  programs  to  place  files  in 
appropriate  places.  With  an  Internet  connection, 
however,  you  must  have  a  package  that  runs  on  a 


114 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


* 


server,  collecting  messages  and  distributing  them 
to  users.  The  package  might  also  have  to  convert 
email  from  an  Internet  format  to  the  format 
used  by  your  internal  mail  package,  so  that 
attachments  appear  correctly  in  messages, 
extra  Internet  headers  are  hidden,  and  so  on. 

In  a  small  network,  or  one  with  excess 
computing  power  on  some  of  the  PCs,  you  can 
very  probably  run  an  Internet  email  service  on 
one  of  your  existing  computers.  But  if  your 
hardware  is  creaking  at  the  seams,  or  you  want  to 
choose  a  particular  type  of  software,  you  might 
find  that  the  only  way  to  run  things  reliably  is  to 
have  another  computer  dedicated  to  processing 
messages.  And  if  you  expect  that  Internet  email  is 
going  to  be  important  to  your  business,  that's 
almost  certainly  a  necessity. 

Basic  connections 

At  its  very  simplest,  you  may  be  able  to  get  away 
without  spending  any  money  at  all  on  your 
Internet  mail  link.  If  you're  using  a  program  like 
Outlook,  or  the  Windows  Messaging  Client 
(called  Exchange  in  earlier  versions  of  Windows 
95),  you  can  easily  add  the  Microsoft  Internet 
Mail  service  to  a  user's  profile,  which  will  allow 
external  mail  to  be  sent  and  received.  If  you  have 
an  Internet  connection  that's  accessible  to  all  the 
systems,  either  via  a  network  and  a  router,  or 
perhaps  using  the  new  connection  sharing  in 
Windows  98  Second  Edition,  then  all  you  need  to 


do  is  find  an  Internet  service  provider  that  will 
allow  you  to  collect  individual  emails  from  a 
single  POP  3  account. 

For  example,  Demon  Internet's  POP  3  service 
allows  you  unlimited  email  users,  and  you  can 
retrieve  just  the  messages  for  a  single  user  in  a 
session  by  specifying  a  user  name  as  well  as  your 
hostname  when  you  connect.  A  few  simple 
configuration  options  on  each  computer,  and 
hey  presto!  —  individual  Internet  emails  on  the 
desktop,  with  each  person  still  using  the  same 
mail  program  they  were  used  to. 

There  are  drawbacks  to  this  approach, 
however.  If  you're  relying  on  an  external  ISP,  then 
it's  unlikely  you'll  be  able  to  have  multiple  users 
simultaneously  accessing  the  mailbox;  and  the 
more  users  in  your  office,  the  greater  the 
likelihood  of  that  happening.  And,  of  course,  the 
main  sticking  point  may  be  ensuring  that  each 
machine  has  access  to  the  Internet  via  a  shared 
modem  or  other  connection;  adding  a  router  to 
enable  all  the  systems  access  could  cost  anything 
from  £400  to  a  couple  of  thousand  pounds. 

Nevertheless,  with  a  simple  router  or 
Windows  98  connection  sharing,  this  can  be 
one  of  the  most  cost-effective  ways  of  linking 
to  the  rest  of  the  world.  For  a  small  office,  with 
little  technical  expertise,  it  could  also  be  the 
simplest  and  most  trouble-free  solution: 
once  the  email  clients  have  been  configured, 
there's  little  else  to  do.  + 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


115 


n 


MI 


anagemmti 


Mid-range  system 


As  weVe  said,  when  you  have  more  than  a  handful 
of  users,  things  start  to  become  more  complicated. 
Not  only  will  there  be  potential 

problems  of  connection  — 
more  than  one 
person  wanting 
to  access  a 
common  ISP 
mailbox  at  the 
same  time  — 
but  there  are 
management  issues 
too.  While  a  small 
company  might  be 
able  to  work  on 
the  basis  of  people 
knowing  who  to  contact 
for  each  job,  things  are  less  clear 
in  a  larger  company  with  more  staff. 
So  a  larger  company  will  need  a  selection 
of  addresses  to  contact  whole  teams  as  well 
as  individuals,  for  example  the  sales  team  or  the 
accounts  department,  without  knowing  personal 
addresses.  And  the  more  addresses  there  are,  the 
greater  the  likelihood  of  people  wanting  a  central 
contact  point  where  they  can  ask  who  to  mail 
about  a  particular  issue. 

Having  a  'postmaster'  address  is  mandatory; 
it's  part  of  the  Internet's  mail  standards,  and 


►With  a 

DEDICATED  EMAIL 
SYSTEM  LIKE  THE 

Cobalt  Qube, 

MUCH  OF  THE 
CONFIGURATION 

of  a  Unix  email 

SERVER  CAN  BE 
DONE  FROM  A 
WEB  BROWSER 


You’ll  have  to  make  hard  decisions  about  HOW 


YOU  WANT  TO  CONNECT  your  mail  system,  and 
how  much  you  want  to  spend  on  it 

.  as  a  result,  it's  where  many  people  will  send 
!  complaints  and  general  queries.  And  it  highlights 
!  one  of  the  features  that  you'll  almost  certainly 
I  need  when  your  mail  system  grows:  aliasing. 

Aliases  are  vital  if  you  want  to  manage  mail 
!  effectively.  They  give  you  control  over  your  own 
j  email  server,  allowing  you  to  add  people,  like  new 
i  members  of  the  accounts  department,  without 
i  having  to  contact  your  ISP  each  time  a  change  is 
j  needed. 

!  At  this  point  you'll  have  to  make  hard 

j  decisions  about  how  you  want  to  connect  your 
;  mail  system,  and  how  much  you  want  to  spend 
|  on  it.  Do  you  want  to  register  an  Internet  domain 
|  name  for  your  organisation?  And  how  will  you 
j  collect  your  messages?  Via  an  Internet 
|  connection,  or  some  other  type  of  dial-up  link? 
i  You  might  have  thought  that  'Internet  email' 

|  means  you  have  to  use  TCP/IP.  But  you  don't 
j  need  to  run  the  TCP/IP  protocol  to  collect  your 
|  messages.  While  this  is  an  obvious  option,  many 
j  people  feel  that  using  the  protocol  can  present  a 
i  security  risk  too:  as  long  as  the  TCP/IP 


connection  lasts,  your  network  is  potentially 
vulnerable  to  malicious  attacks. 

You  can  collect  messages  in  other  ways 
instead,  like  UUCP  (Unix-to-Unix  Copy  Program) 
or  via  a  connection  to  a  specialised  service 
provider  that  runs  a  gateway  service  for  you.  This 
will  stop  people  from  directly  attacking  systems 
on  your  network,  although  viruses  in  email 
attachments,  such  as  Melissa,  will  still  reach  you. 


So  whatfs  the  main  benefit  to  other  types 
of  connection?  In  many  ways,  it's  simplicity. 
Installing  and  configuring  TCP/IP,  as  anyone 
who's  ever  set  up  a  network  of  computers  knows, 
isn't  always  the  most  straightforward  task, 
so  for  less  technical  administrators,  using  an 
alternative  system  can  save  a  lot  of  time. 


Tight  budgets,  small 
hardware 


The  amount  you  have  available  to  spend  can 
affect  your  choice  of  hardware  and  software. 

If  you  want  to  run  a  package  like  Microsoft 
Exchange,  you'll  need  a  well-featured  PC  running 
Windows  NT  Server,  with  plenty  of  memory  and 
disk  space.  That  could  set  you  back  over  £2000, 
while  NT  Server  4  will  cost  you  over  £600.  You  can 
put  Exchange  Server  on  your  flleserver,  but  it  will 
be  excruciatingly  slow  if  there's  more  than  a 
handful  of  users.  For  all  but  the  very  smallest 
offices,  you'll  need  a  dedicated  computer. 

For  tight  budgets,  or  organisations  with 
limited  technical  resources,  there  are  'Internet  in 
a  box'  solutions,  essentially  a  small  computer 
running  an  email  server  and  web  proxy  in  a  box 
that  comes  ready  configured.  Just  plug  it  in,  add 
a  POP  3  mailbox  facility  to  your  existing  email 
clients,  and  you're  ready  to  go. 

With  more  technical  expertise  you  can  achieve 
the  same  yourself,  running  either  a  Windows- 
based  POP3  server  —  many  of  which  can  be 
downloaded  from  the  Internet  —  or  using  Linux 
or  Unix  to  do  the  same  job.  With  a  dedicated 
system  such  as  the  Cobalt  Qube  [pictured ,  above 
left],  much  of  the  configuration  of  a  Unix  email 
server  can  be  done  from  a  web  browser,  without 
the  need  to  know  any  Unix  commands. 


Dedicated  servers 


While  many  of  the  well-known  commercial 
email  packages  have  their  own  Internet  gateway 
software  either  available  as  an  option  or  included 
in  the  basic  bundle,  they're  not  the  only  solutions 
—  and  very  often  not  the  cheapest.  For  sheer  ease 
of  use,  a  package  that's  properly  integrated  with 
your  internal  mail  system  will  usually  be  the  best 
option  and  the  least  trouble  to  maintain.  Bear 
in  mind,  though,  that  if  you  use  a  client  like 
Outlook,  there's  no  reason  why  you  shouldn't 


116 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


3 


ariagement 


►The  Intel 
Express  8100 
ISDN  ROUTER 


just  use  it  as  an  Internet  mail  system,  rather  than 
searching  for  ways  to  link  your  internal  system 
to  the  world. 

If  you  do  want  to  look  around  more,  as  long 
as  your  mail  system  uses  one  of  the  common 
standards,  such  as  MAPI,  then  you'll  be  able  to 
find  a  selection  of  gateway  programs  that  will 
link  it  to  other  networks,  including  the  Internet. 

For  example,  the  TFS  gateway 
software  supports 
several  different  email 
systems,  and  will 
connect  to  a  service 
provider  via  UUCP 
rather  than  TCP/IP;  it 
will  also  run  on  a  fairly 
low-powered  PC,  albeit 
quite  slowly. 

In  looking  at  different  solutions,  there  are 
more  things  to  consider  besides  compatibility  — 
and  it  can  sometimes  be  these  that  will 
determine  which  is  the  best  package  to  use. 

How,  for  example,  does  the  gateway  handle 
email  addresses?  Will  it  provide  'fuzzy  matching'l 
and  guess  that  if  someone  mails  over  the 
Internet  to  'nwhitfield'  that  a  message  should 
be  delivered  to  'Nigel  Whitfield'  on  the  internal 
mail  system?  Or  will  it  just  bounce  back  an  error 
to  the  sender? 

How  easily  can  aliases  be  created?  And  will 
the  system  automatically  recognise  a  new  user 
you  add  to  the  internal  mail  system  for  external 
mail?  Or  will  you  have  to  add  'set  up  external 
mail'  to  the  list  of  things  to  do  each  time  you  have 
a  new  user?  Both  have  their  advantages,  but  if 
it's  ease  of  use  you  want,  a  system  that  does 
everything  for  you,  and  minimises  the  amount  of 
misdirected  email,  will  make  life  much  simpler. 


Security 


All  of  these  are  factors  to  consider  when  you're 
choosing  your  mail  system,  but  there's  one  that 
may  influence  people  more  than  any  other  now  — 
security.  No  matter  how  your  PCs  connect  to  the 
rest  of  the  world  for  email,  whether  it's  via  a 
dialup  link  to  an  ISP's  POP3  server,  a  Unix-based 
gateway  on  your  LAN,  or  a  UUCP  connection 
to  a  gateway  that  links  to  your  Microsoft  Mail 
system,  you're  still  vulnerable  to  viruses  and 
other  malicious  attacks  that  can  be  sent  as 
email  attachments.  So  for  anyone  who  takes  the 
integrity  of  their  systems  seriously,  there's  one 
important  question  that  needs  to  be  asked  of 
just  about  any  mail  system:  Can  it  be  protected 
against  viruses? 

The  answer  is  no.  With  the  speed  of 
development  of  viruses,  you're  unlikely  to  be 
able  to  offer  complete  protection  —  and  some 
speculate  that  it's  the  false  feeling  of  safety  that 


caused  so  many  people  to  fall  prey  to  the  latest 
round,  after  installing  anti-virus  software  on 
their  email  gateways.  Even  so,  it's  worth  finding 
an  email  gateway  that  can  be  linked  to  anti-virus 
software;  most  of  the  major  packages  can  do  it, 
and  it  will  provide  some  peace  of  mind.  But  it's 
never  going  to  solve  the  problem.  The  only  way  to 
do  that  is  to  make  sure  the  people  who  are  using 
your  email  service  are  properly  educated  about 
the  possible  dangers  of  attachments.  Just  say  no 
to  executables,  Word  documents,  and  anything 
else  that  could  carry  a  macro. 

If  you  already  have  an  anti-virus  policy,  check 
with  the  maker  of  the  software  you're  using  to 
see  what  email  systems  it  can 
link  to. 


▲The  Dell 
PowerEdge  6300, 

POWERED  BY  AN 

you  don't  have  Intel  Xeon  server 

one  already,  find  out 
what's  supported  by  the 
email  software  you  want  to  use. 

If  you're  using  a  server  that  talks  TCP/IP  to 
the  rest  of  the  world,  then  time  spent  making  sure 
it's  secure  is  vital;  running  Microsoft  Exchange 
might  seem  a  simple  option,  but  if  your  NT  server 
is  linked  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  even  for  just  a 
few  minutes  a  day,  making  sure  you  have  the 
latest  updates  to  applications  like  Internet 
Information  Server  is  essential.  Unix  systems  too 
are  vulnerable,  but  they  seem  to  fall  prey  to 
attacks  far  less  than  the  more  standardised  NT 
and  Windows  systems.  Don't  assume,  however, 
that  Unix  or  Linux  will  solve  your  problems  in  this 
regard:  even  if  an  email  virus  or  worm  won't  affect 
the  mail  server  itself,  it  could  still  pass  unscathed 
to  the  PCs  on  your  network. 

All  this  might  sound  like  a  nightmare 

and  if  you  make  the  wrong  decision,  it  can  be. 

But  as  our  walk-through  shows  [over],  it  can  also 
be  pretty  straightforward  to  configure  a  basic 
system  to  distribute  email  around  your  office 
and  to  the  Internet.  ► 


118 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


ariagement 


Setting  up  Internet  mail  step  by  step 


NTMail  is  one  of  the  most  popular 
Internet  mail  systems  for  Windows 
NT.  It  will  collect  messages  via  a 
dialup  account  as  well  as  a  fixed  link, 
and  provides  features  such  as  aliasing  and 
automatic  response  'robots’,  and  plug-ins  that 
can  perform  functions  such  as  virus  checking. 
You  can  download  a  28-day  evaluation  version 
from  www.ntmail.co. 


Although  this  workshop  is  based  around 
NTMail,  the  steps  you’ll  need  to  set  up  TCP/IP 
addresses  and  email  clients  will  be  similar  if  you 
want  to  share  a  net  connection  via  Windows  98  or 
a  router  that  hides  your  network  from  the  rest  of 
the  world. 

Ilf  yoiPre  running  NTMail  or  another 
system  that  provides  a  POP3  mail  service, 
you’ll  need  to  use  a  POP3  or  IMAP4  mail 
client  on  each  PC  —  which  means  installing 
TCP/IP  on  all  the  systems  on  your  network.  For  a 
small  network  with  no  permanent  Internet  link, 
configure  the  machines  with  sequential  IP 
addresses  from  one  of  the  private  ranges 
[see PCW,  September  1999, pllO\. 

2  Put  a  hosts  file  in  the  Windows  directory 
on  each  system  to  allow  them  to  resolve 
names  to  addresses.  Fig  1  is  a  sample  file, 
created  in  Notepad  and  saved  as  HOSTS  with  no 
extension.  If  you  simply  want  access  to  the  email 
server,  just  list  that  in  the  file  and  none  of  the 
other  systems. 

3  On  the  client  PCs,  using  a  mail  program 
like  Outlook  Express,  you’ll  need  to 
configure  the  name  or  IP  address  of  the 
NTMail  server  for  both  sending  and  receiving 
email.  We’ve  called  the  server  simply  'mail’  and 
assigned  it  the  IP  address  192.168.1.1.  If  you’re 
using  a  service  like  Demon’s  POP3,  you  could 
specify  a  particular  email  name  by  giving  the 
account  name  user+hostname.demon.co.uk  in 
Outlook,  to  collect  messages  just  for  'user’.  [Fig  2] 

4  If  you’re  using  a  Dial-Up  Internet 

connection,  now’s  the  time  to  configure 
it.  You’ll  also  need  to  know  the  details  of 
your  account  with  the  ISP  that  you’re  using, 
including  the  server  that  you  can  send  all  your 


wirrillMlh 

^ ^  imJ i -IV 1 1  |i 

J*4  WWAiUJ  .r-rh  ■_  1 


outgoing  email  to.  This  means  you  can  send  mail 
out,  then  hang  up  the  phone  much  more  quickly. 

5  Start  the  NTMail  installation 

program.  After  being  asked  to  agree  to 
the  licence,  and  for  a  postmaster’s 
password,  you’ll  see  this  splash  screen,  where  you 
need  to  enter  the  IP  address  you  assigned  to  your 
computer’s  network  connection  - 192.168.1.1  if 
you  followed  our  example  above.  You  also  have  to 
enter  your  domain  name.  Check  the  box  if  you’re 
using  a  dial-up  connection  to  the  net.  [Fig  3] 

6 Now  you  have  to  enter  the  details  of 
your  ISP  account.  Click  on  Next,  then  you 
can  specify  how  often  to  check  for  email  if 
you’re  using  a  dial-up  link.  You  can  also  specify 
whether  to  use  POP3  or  SMTP  to  collect  email. 
POP3  is  more  common,  but  SMTP  is  used  by 
some  providers  such  as 
Demon  and  offered  by 
others  on  request.  SMTP  is  a 
better  option,  as  it  requires 
less  configuration  when  you 
add  other  users.  It’s  also  on 
this  page  that  you’ll  enter  the 
name  of  your  ISP’s  outgoing 
mail  server.  If  you  specified 
POP  for  collecting  mail  from 
the  ISP,  the  next  screen  will 
prompt  you  for  details. 

7  Now  all  the  other 
administration  of 
NTMail  can  be  done 
via  a  web  browser  from  any 
PC,  just  by  pointing  it  at 
port  8001  on  the  server. 

You’ll  need  to  enter  the  user 
name  postmaster  and  the 
appropriate  password. 

8  From  the  main 
screen,  click  on  the 
Users  button  and  then 
choose  Add.  You  can  add 
users  one  at  a  time,  or  type  a 
list  into  the  Add  Many  Users 
box,  separating  user  name, 
password  and  real  name  by 
commas,  as  in  our  example 
screen.  [Fig  4] 

•r  There  are  plenty  more 
configuration  options  in 
NTMail,  allowing  people  to 
access  their  messages  via  the 
web,  or  enabling  automatic 
responses.  But  for  basic  email 
between  your  network  and  the 
rest  of  the  world,  that’s  all 
there  is  to  it.  □ 


■■  I  U  juam 

in 

E*ir-Wl  | 
~  Le^|  ruw'pl-rvaB 


120 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Musical  Hot  Notes 


Sound 

and  fury 

The  big  record  companies  are  hitting  some  sour  notes  over 

MP3,  THE  TECHNOLOGY  WHICH  ENABLES  THE  DIGITAL  COPYING  OF 
MUSIC  OVER  THE  INTERNET.  NlALL  MAGENNIS  LENDS  AN  EAR. 


▼  Based  around  the 

INNARDS  OF  THE  YEPP, 

Creative’s  Nomad 

COMES  WITH  EITHER 

64Mb  or  32Mb  of 

MEMORY,  ENOUGH  TO 
STORE  TWO  HOURS 
AND  ONE  HOUR  OF 
MP3  RESPECTIVELY. 
The  Nomad  also  has 

A  VOICE  DICTATION 
MODE,  SO  YOU  CAN 
TAKE  VOICE  NOTES  AS 
YOU  WALK  ABOUT 


For  the  first  time  since  the  explosion  of 
the  Internet,  'sex'  is  no  longer  the 
most  popular  group  of  three  letters 
searched  for  on  the  Web  -  'MP3'  now 
claims  the  top  spot.  While  this  might 
be  good  news  for  moral  crusaders,  it's  unlikely  to 
have  been  greeted  with  such  warmth  by  the  big 
six  record  companies  -  Sony,  Bertelsmann, 
Warner,  EMI-Capitol,  Universal  and  PolyGram. 

It  used  to  be  that  if  you  wanted  the  latest 
single  without  having  to  pay  for  it,  you  listened  to 
the  radio  with  a  blank  cassette  in  your  tape  deck 
and  a  finger  on  the  pause  button  ready  for  release 
when  the  song  came  on.  Record  companies  didn't 
mind  this  all  that  much.  After  all,  in  many 
countries  they  were  receiving  a  small  royalty  from 
every  blank  tape  sold,  and  the 
__ listening  experience  was 

degraded  significantly  by  a 
moronic  DJ  speaking  over  the 
intro  and  outro  of  the  song. 


But  times  have  moved 

on.  Nowadays  you  can 
simply  enter  the  name  of  the 
song  or  artist  into  a 
dedicated  search  engine  such 
as  mp3.lycos.com  and  a  few 
minutes  later  you  are  in 
possession  of  a  digital  copy 
of  the  single.  This 
temptation  is  obviously 
proving  too  much  for 
consumers  and  the  big  six  are 
not  happy. 

They're  so  unhappy,  in 
fact,  that  they  are  using  the 
Recording  Industry 
Association  of  America 


(RIAA)  to  try  to  limit  the  growth  of  technology 
surrounding  MP3.  This  is  ironic,  as  many  of  these 
companies  contributed  research  money  to  fund 
projects  which  gave  birth  to  the  MP3  standard. 

The  RIAA  now  accepts  that  it  is  unable  to 
stamp  out  pirated  music  download  sites  which 
spring  up  by  the  hundreds  each  day.  According  to 
Cary  Sherman,  senior  executive  vice-president  of 
the  RIAA,  the  association  now  believes  the  only 
viable  solution  for  preventing  free  downloads  is 
to  attack  the  problem  on  the  receiving  end.  This 
resulted  in  the  RIAA's  misguided  decision  to  take 
Diamond  Multimedia  to  court  over  its  Rio  MP3 
player.  Luckily  for  consumers,  this  was  a  battle 
that  the  RIAA  lost. 

'There's  a  lot  of  buzz  about  MP3,  but  basically 
it's  just  a  way  of  compressing  audio,'  says  Scott 
Law,  QuickTime  product  manager  for  Apple. 
'People  have  got  all  excited  about  it  because  of  the 
way  that  it  has  been  adopted.  There's  a  lot  of 
copyrighted  material  on  the  Web  for  people  to 
download  and  pirate.' 

Techno  trouble 

So  just  what  exactly  is  this  technology  that  is 
causing  so  much  controversy?  To  answer  this,  we 
first  need  to  set  out  how  digital  audio  works.  CDs 
contain  audio  that  has  been  converted  into  data 
by  sampling  at  a  rate  of  44. IK  samples  per  second 
using  16  bits  per  sample.  This  generates  a  huge 
volume  of  digital  information  -  every  minute  of 
audio  takes  up  roughly  10Mb  of  disk  space. 

While  this  is  fine  for  use  on  CDs,  it's  much  too 
large  if  you  want  to  distribute  music  across  the 
Internet.  A  single  song  might  take  hours  to 
download.  This  is  where  MP3  comes  into  play. 

As  a  lossy  format,  MP3  can  compress  audio  by 
a  factor  of  10-12,  yet  still  maintain  audio  quality 


122 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


that  is  hard  to  distinguish  from  normal  CD 
sound.  It  uses  a  compression  method  called 
perceptual  coding  which  takes  advantage  of 
weaknesses  in  the  way  the  human  ear  perceives 
sound  waves.  It  basically  looks  for  audio 
information  that  the  ear  won't  realise  is  missing 
from  the  signal,  and  strips  out  this  data. 

'There  are  always  musical  notes  and  musical 
noise  in  audio  playback  which  is  out  of  your 
hearing  range,  so  those  types  of  noises  get 
removed,'  says  David  Shickel,  technical  director 
of  Real  Networks.  cIt's  fairly  generic  for  most 
encoding  types  to  be  able  to  do  that.' 

It's  surprising  that  such  an  old  standard  has 
suddenly  gained  this  huge  notoriety.  The  MP3 
compression  scheme  was  actually  invented  in 
199 1  by  a  German  research  firm,  the  Fraunhofer 
Institute.  Despite  there  being  a  whole  raft  of 
competing  compression  schemes  from 
commercial  companies  with  large  marketing 
budgets,  MP3  has  managed  to  become  the  most 
popular.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  excellent  audio 
quality.  According  to  Shickel,  it  is  very  difficult  to 
tell  the  difference  between  the  audio  quality 
offered  by  the  competing  compression  schemes. 

But  there  are  other  reasons.  Many  of  the 
early  MP3  encoding  and  decoding  programs  were 
created  by  amateur  coders  and  given  away  free  on 
the  Internet.  Because  the  software  was  available 
for  free,  it  was  picked  up  by  students.  Many  of  the 
early  pirate  MP3  sites  were  student  Web  pages  or 
FTP  sites  hosted  on  fast  university  servers  with 
high  bandwidth  pipes  to  the  Internet. 

Scene  and  heard 

The  MP3  scene  gradually  spread  across  the  Web, 
so  that  at  any  one  time  there  are  thousands  of 
copyright  songs  stored  on  Websites  or  FTP 
servers.  'The  RIAA  in  the  US  and  the  Performing 
Rights  Society  in  the  UK  are  worried  about  what's 
happening  here.  And  of  course  the  record 
companies  are  clearly  looking  at  their  revenues,' 
says  Shickel.  'Arguably  I  could  encode  my  whole 
CD  collection,  put  it  up  on  the  Web,  and  you 
could  download  the  whole  thing  and  put  it  onto 
your  Diamond  Rio  player  -  and  guess  what,  you'd 
never  have  to  buy  their  products.' 

The  spread  of  MP3  took  people  within  both 
the  software  and  the  record  industries  by 
surprise.  In  many  ways,  the  record  companies 
could  be  blamed  for  not  being  quick  enough 
off  the  mark  with  digital  distribution,  but  the 
fact  remains  that  MP3  distribution  is  illegal 
and  damaging  for  many  of  the  artists  whose 
work  is  being  copied. 

'The  MP3  market  is  interesting  and  there's  a 
lot  of  demand  out  there  for  MP3  music,  but 
currently  it  doesn't  allow  record  producers  to 
derive  any  revenue  from  it,  so  at  the  moment  it's 


►  mp3.lycos.com 

WILL  FIND  TRACKS 
FROM  YOUR 
FAVOURITE  ARTISTS 
OR  ELSE  YOU  CAN 
CHOOSE  A  SONG  TITLE 
TO  SEARCH  FOR 


just  a  technology 
that  allows  for 
piracy  of  music,' 
says  Neil  Laver, 
Internet  product 
manager  at 
Microsoft. 
'Ultimately,  in  the 
long  term,  that's  in 
nobody's  interest.' 


■JlhCBi 


Protection  scheme 


▼  Diamond  Rio 
PMP300:  The  Rio 
WAS  THE  FIRST  MP3 
PLAYER  TO  BE 
AVAILABLE  IN  THE  UK 
AND  WAS  AN  INSTANT 
HIT.  NOW  IT  HAS  BEEN 
UPDATED  WITH  A 
MEMORY  UPGRADE 
FROM  32MB  TO 
64Mb,  which  is 
UPGRADABLE  TO  96MB 
VIA  REMOVABLE  FLASH 

Media  cards.  See 
this  month’s 
Reviews  (p88) 


With  the  RIAA  having  failed  to  stop  the 
Diamond  Rio  from  appearing  on  the  market,  the 
music  industry  needs  a  new  type  of  technology 
for  protecting  digitally  encoded  music  so  that 
digital  audio  cannot  be  played  back  by  anyone 
other  than  the  original  purchaser.  As  a  result,  it 
has  teamed  up  with  software  companies  such  as 
Real  Networks,  Apple  and  Microsoft  to  produce  a 
digital  copy  protection  scheme.  The  group  goes 
by  the  title  Secure  Digital  Music  Initiative 
(SDMI)  and  the  plan  is  to  develop  a  protection 
scheme  that  will  work  across  a  wide  range  of 
different  compression  formats. 


*MP3  is  here  to  stay,  so  SDMI  is  looking  at 
ways  of  bolting  something  on  to  MP3  files  so  that 
it's  encrypted  in  the  same  way,'  says 
Shickel.  'The  whole  point  of  this 
organisation  is  to  produce 
something  that  is  generic, 
platform  independent  and 
codec  independent.  It  is 
putting  together  a 
method  of  encrypting  a 
piece  of  music  so  you 
have  the  right  to  play  it 
on  any  of  your  systems, 
but  if  you  try  to 
give  it  to 

somebody  else,  it 
won't  pL 
on  their 
system.' 

The 

SDMI  protection 
scheme  will  have  two  parts. 

First,  at  the  encoding  stage, 
information  will  be  embedded 
into  the  audio  data  to  identify  who 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


123 


MP3 


V  —  : ScJ  \ 

Musical  Hot  Notes 


THE  AMATEUR  MUSICIANS’  VIEW 


Benjamin  Ackerman  plays  in 
an  indie  rock  band  called 
xSpace.  The  band  has 
posted  its  music  on  its 
website  in  MP3  format. 
‘Before  we  used  MP3,  we 
had  some  short  wav  file 
samples  on  our  page,  but 
they  were  huge  in  size  and 
too  short  a  clip  to  be  worth 
a  download,’  he  says.  ‘By 
putting  our  MP3s  online,  we 
would  be  giving  people 
access  to  the  entire  song  in 


CD  quality  and  hopefully 
gaining  fans  based  solely  on 
the  quality  of  the  music  -  the 
way  it’s  supposed  to  be.’ 
Skot  McDonald  is  one  half 
of  Australian  electronic  duo 
Vellocet.  The  band  also 
posts  songs  on  its  Website. 
‘We’re  mainly  an 
electronic/ studio  band,  so 
MP3  was  a  practical  way  of 
getting  stuff  that  is  hard  to 
perform  live  out  to  an 
audience,  especially  when 


just  starting  out,’  he  says. 

So  is  he  worried  about  MP3 
files  ruining  his  chances  of 
making  a  career  from 
music?  ‘No,  because  MP3 
distorts  your  music,’  he 
says.  ‘Anyone  who  really 
appreciates  the  music  would 
have  to  buy  it  in  a  linearly 
encoded,  non-lossy  format - 
CD  -  to  hear  it  properly. 
‘Anyway,  economies  and 
industries  in  the  developed 
world  are  moving  towards 


service  rather  than  product 
provision,  so  maybe  the 
future  is  music  service 
providers  paying  bands  to 
produce  music  for  free 
distribution,  with  the 
providers  making  money 
from  advertising,  concerts 
and  the  like.’ 
xSpace 

www.cosnet.com/xspace/  m 
p3.asp 

Vellocet 

vellocet.ii.net 


navigation  consort 


OOOtt 


Underworld  -  Born  Slippy  (Nuxx)  (Darren 


audio  enhancement  control 


A  Samsung 
Yepp:  The  same 

SIZE  AS  A  CREDIT 

card,  Samsung 
claims  the  Yepp  is 

THE  WORLD’S 

smallest  MP3 
PLAYER.  It’s  also 
THE  SNAZZIEST, 
WITH  A  SILVER  OR 

blue  finish.  The 
Yepp  downloads 
MP3  files  from 
the  Net  into  its 
32Mb  of  memory, 

WHICH  CAN  BE 
EXPANDED  USING 

Flash  Media 
cards,  and  also 
features  a  digital 

FM  TUNER  AND 
VOICE  RECORDER 


The  next  generation  of  the  MPEG  standard 
will  also  have  provision  for  the  addition  of  copy 
protection  schemes  such  as  SDMI.  ‘The  MPEG4 
systems  layer  includes  all  sorts  of  “hooks”  to 


the  music  has  been  licensed  to.  The  second  part 
of  the  equation  will  involve  players,  either 
hardware  or  software.  These  will  have  software 
code  embedded  into  them  that  will  be  able  to 
quiz  the  embedded  information  in  the  audio 
stream  to  find  out  whether  the  user  has  actually 
purchased  the  music  or  whether  they  are  trying 
to  use  a  pirated  copy. 

‘The  whole  idea  is  to  do  the  same  kind  of 
thing  as  the  way  you  can  get  a  digital  certificate 
for  your  Web  browsers,’  says  Shickel.  ‘The  SDMI 
thing  is  probably  the  only  non-proprietary  thing 
that’s  going  on.’ 


make  it  easy  to  tie  in  MPEG4  with  secure  systems, 
content  management  systems  and  rights 
management  systems,’  says  Rob  Koenen,  an 
engineer  at  KPN  Research  who  sits  on  the  MPEG 
standards  committee.  ‘MPEG4  will  have  an 
interface  into  which  other  companies  can  plug 
their  protection  technology.  For  instance,  MPEG 
has  a  concept  called  scene  description,  which  you 
can  hook  into.  If  you  encrypt  something  there, 
it’s  very  difficult  to  reconstruct  the  original 
material.  You’ll  also  be  able  to  hook  protection 
into  the  individual  content  streams.’ 

Despite  all  these  promises  of  a  secure  future 
for  record  company  profits,  the  reality  is  that 
every  other  digital  music  protection  system  in  the 
past  has  been  cracked.  Liquid  Audio  and  A2B 
both  claimed  that  their  proprietary  music 
distribution  systems  were  secure,  but  there  is  now 
a  program  on  the  Internet  called  A2b2wav  which 
adds  a  record  button  to  both  company’s  players, 
allowing  crackers  to  save  the  files  as  standard  wav 
files  and  then  encode  them  into  MP3  files  for 
upload  to  pirate  sites. 

It  looks  like  the  record  companies  will  have  to 
devise  a  new  business  model  if  they  are  to  make 
any  money  on  the  Web.  □ 


PCW  CONTACTS 


drogo.  cselt.stet.  it/ mpeg 

The  official  MPEG  committee  Website 

www.  mpeg.  org/M  PEG/ mp3,  h  tml 
MPEG  pointers  and  resources 
1 53. 96. 1 72.2/amm/techinf/layer3/layer3f 
aq/index.html 

An  FAQ  on  MPEG  from  the  Fraunhofer  Institute 

mp3.lycos.com 

An  MP3  search  engine 

mp3,  lycos.  com/players/windows 

A  list  of  MP3  players  for  download 


124 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Going 

going 

gone 

What  am  I  bid  for  this  lovely  PC?  A  Tasty 

LITTLE  NUMBER?  MAKE  AN  OFFER  AT  AN  ONLINE 
AUCTION,  WITH  OUR  GUIDE,  ElRA  HAYWARD. 


Are  you  looking  for  a  good  deal  on 
128Mb  of  RAM,  or  that  digital 
camera  youVe  always  hankered  after 
at  a  knock-down  price?  Then  online 
auctions  may  be  your  answer.  They’re  already  big 
business  in  the  US,  and  are  catching  on  over  here. 

Currently  in  the  UK  there  are  no  more  than  a 
dozen  active  online  auction  sites,  but  new  ones 
are  launching  all  the  time.  Already  this  year 
Yahoo  UK  has  started  an  auction  business 
<auctions.yahoo.co.uk>,  as  has  newspaper  group 
Newsquest  <www.auctionhunter.co.uk>.  This 
year  has  also  seen  the  launch  of  simultaneous  TV 
and  online  auctions  through  The  Auction 
Channel  <www.theauctionchannel.co.uk> . 

Online  auctions  have  been  around  for  about 
four  years  in  the  US,  where  the  big  names  include 
www.eBay.com, www.Egghead.com  and 
www.uBid.com.  It  seems  there  is  nothing  you 
can’t  buy  at  an  online  auction  in  the  US,  from 
real  estate  at  www.usliquidators.com  to  fine  art, 
cars  or  Beanie  Babies  -  they’re  all  available  at  the 
click  of  a  mouse. 

Online  auctions  are  split  into  two  areas.  The 
first  type  are  person-to-person,  where  the 
auctioneer  acts  as  a  middleman  just  like  a 
traditional  auction  house,  never  owning  what 


126 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Illustration  byTrevor  Dunton 


goes  under  the  hammer.  Second,  there  are 
business-to-consumer  auctions,  where  the 
auction  house  has  bought  in  stock  and  is  selling 
it  off  complete  with  manufacturer's  warranty. 

It's  not  always  obvious  how  the  sites  make  any 
money.  Indeed,  US  analyst  Forrester  Research 
finds  that  many  of  the  US  sites  are  running  at  a 
loss.  Even  the  well-established  sites  are  fairly 
fragile  operations  -  for  instance,  eBay  crashed 
several  times  in  June  for  hours  at  a  time  and  in 
the  process  wiped  10  per  cent  off  its  share  price. 

At  a  traditional  auction,  both  the  buyer  and 
the  seller  are  charged  a  premium,  but  some  of  the 
online  sites  don't  appear  to  do  this.  'Some  try  to 
make  their  money  by  offering  services  around  the 
sale,  like  charges  for  shipping,  insurance  and 
advertising,'  says  Internet  analyst  Nick  Jones  of 
Jupiter  Communications.  'But  what  they  all  want 
you  to  do  is  spend  a  lot  of  time  on  the  site  so  they 
can  build  up  a  profile  of  the  kind  of  consumer  you 
are.  It's  classic  database  marketing.' 

There  have  been  some  rumblings  of  concern 
about  fraud  on  online  auction  sites  in  the  US. 
eBay,  which  boasts  250,000  new  items  on  the  site 
each  day,  is  being  investigated  by  federal 
investigators  and  the  New  York  City 
consumer  affairs  department.  Along 
with  the  more  commonplace  stories 
sellers  not  sending  what  buyers  think 
they  have  bought,  there  are  more 
alarming  tales  of  a  stolen  Kentucky 
Derby  trophy  up  for  sale  and  a  13-year-old  who 
nearly  managed  to  buy  a  Ferrari. 

There  are  also  different  types  of  auction. 
Occasionally,  sites  run  a  Dutch  auction  where  the 
lot  price  drops  periodically  until  the  first  bidder 
gets  the  goods.  The  lot's  opening  price  and  the 
auction's  time  of  close  are  set,  and  then  it's  just  a 
question  of  holding  your  nerve  -  the  first  bid 
wins  the  auction.  Reserve  auctions  are  extremely 
common.  This  is  where  lots  have  a  reserve  price  - 
the  lowest  price  at  which  they  can  be  sold  -  so  if 
you  thought  that  an  auction  might  be  an  ideal 
opportunity  to  pick  up  a  PC  for  a  couple  of  quid, 
think  again. 

We  spoke  to  one  auction  addict  who  hates  to 
go  shopping,  but  who  loves  the  fact  that  he  can 
bargain-hunt  from  his  PC.  His  chief  criticism  was 
that  there  is  much  the  auction  houses  could  do 
to  make  the  online  experience  more  interactive 
and  exciting.  Some  of  them  don't  automatically 
let  you  know  when  you've  been  outbid  for  an 
item,  for  instance,  when  it  would  be  an  easy  and 
inexpensive  process  to  fire  an  email  suggesting 
that  you  increase  your  offer. 

Online  auctions  fall  a  long  way  short  of  the 
thrill  and  atmosphere  of  a  real  auction  room.  But 
that  said,  any  bargain  hunter  can  see  their  appeal, 
as  it  is  possible  to  find  some  good  deals.  For 
instance,  lastminute.com  had  a  week  staying  in 
an  apartment  in  Portugal  that  went  for  £200,  and 


I  Quixell  regularly  sells  high-spec  PCs  for  around  j 
|  £400.  If  you  do  your  research  on  prices  and  j 

I  decide  what  your  highest  bid  will  be,  then  the  j 

j  chances  are  that  you'll  get  what  you  want  at  a 
I  price  you  can  be  pleased  with.  j 

|  The  UK  sites 

j  Needless  to  say,  some  sites  are  better  presented  j 

[  than  others.  The  better  ones  attempt  to  assuage  j 
:  any  nervousness  you  might  feel  about  giving  j 
|  them  your  credit  card  details  with  assurances  of 
I  their  credentials  -  how  long  they've  been  in  i 

|  business,  who  started  them,  who  their  backers  j 
j  are,  and  a  privacy  policy  statement.  Person-to 
l  person  sites  also  contain  warnings  about  selling  j 
|  pirated  software  and  services  like  mobile  phone  ] 

j  subscriptions. 

Most  ask  you  to  register  with  a  nickname,  ! 

j  your  email  address  and  credit  card  details.  It's 
|  worth  noting  that  you  may  be  refused  j 

i  registration  by  some  of  the  sites  if  you  use  a  free  j 

!  email  service  such  as  Hotmail  or  Bigfoot.  The 
;  better  ones  also  include  answers  to  frequently 

are  alarming  tales  of  a  stolen  Kentucky 


asked  questions,  a  section  which  shows  you  how 
to  bid  and  the  chance  to  practise  in  a  fantasy 
auction.  The  more  switched-on  will  email  you 
with  details  of  lots  which  may  interest  you  in 
forthcoming  auctions.  Some  of  the  more  poorly 
presented  sites  don't  make  it  clear  whether  the 
goods  are  new  or  secondhand,  or  whether  they 
come  with  any  sort  of  warranty.  All  sites  cover 
themselves  legally  with  plenty  of  disclaimers  and 
rules  about  how  to  conduct  business. 

The  person-to-person  sites  in  the  UK  suffer 
from  a  dearth  of  merchandise.  Whereas  eBay  in 
the  US  can  boast  it  has  nearly  two-and-a-half 
million  items  for  sale  in  over  1,600  categories, 
eSwap,  one  of  the  busiest  of  the  UK  person-to- 
person  sites,  has  about  1,200  items  for  sale  in 
13  categories.  Other  sites  like  ezvendor.com  or 
computercarboot.com  may  only  have  10  or,  at 
best,  a  couple  of  hundred  items  for  sale. 

The  longest  established  UK  business-to- 
consumer  site  is  quixell.co.uk.  Formed  in  1997 
and  backed  by  respected  venture  capitalists,  it  has 
the  broadest  spread  of  products  of  all  the  UK 
sites.  On  offer  are  computers,  white  and  brown 
goods,  jewellery,  sports  and  fitness  items,  small 
gifts  and  accessories,  with  plenty  of  items  up  for 
grabs  in  each  category.  All  items  come  with  a 
photo  and  full  product  description.  Products  are 
dispatched  within  five  working  days  and  Quixell 
operates  a  14-day  money-back  guarantee. 


There 

of  trophy  up  for  sale  and  a  13-year-old  who 
managed  to  buy  a  Ferrari 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


127 


A  CAUTIONARY  TALE 


At  a  recent  Quixell  auction,  PCW 
reader  Mark  Kendall  successfully 
bid  for  a  56K  modem  and  64Mb  of 
SDRAM.  He  was  promised  delivery 
within  five  to  seven  days.  'Then  the 
problems  started/  he  says.  'First  I 
didn't  receive  a  confirmation  email,  as 
I  had  on  previous  occasions.  After  a 
week  I  sent  them  an  email  voicing  my 
concern,  then  two  days  later  I  wrote 
again  as  there  had  been  no  response.' 

Quixell  replied  saying  that  Mark 
had  entered  the  right  email  address 
when  bidding,  but  quoted  the  wrong 


email  address  as  the  one  that  his 
confirmation  email  should  have  been 
sent  to.  Mark  waited  three  weeks  for 
his  goods,  and  threatened  legal  action. 
A  parcel  then  duly  arrived,  containing 
a  piece  of  bubble  wrap  and  nothing 
else.  The  enclosed  invoice  stated  that 
there  was  nothing  to  follow  and  that 
the  unit  price  of  the  modem  was 
£00.00.  But  Mark's  credit  card 
statement  showed  he  had  been  billed 
the  full  amount  of  his  winning  bids 
for  both  items  plus  delivery. 

Quixell  then  told  Mark  that  it 


didn't  have  the  memory  to  sell  in  the 
first  place  and  refunded  his  money. 

He  eventually  got  the  modem.  He 
comments:  'This  dispute  went  on  for 
over  a  month  and  in  that  time  my 
emails  were  passed  from  department 
to  department  with  no  satisfactory 
answer  forthcoming.  My  trust  in  the 
online  shopping  experience  has  been 
diminished.  I  feel  that  to  gain  the  trust 
of  people  willing  to  purchase  items 
over  the  Net,  this  kind  of  company  has 
to  do  more  than  operate  as  a  high- 
street  store  on  the  Net.' 


Auctions  are  held  daily,  with  closing  times  at 
lpm  and  10pm,  and  traffic  on  the  site  is  heaviest 
at  these  times.  Quixell  has  also  started  to  host 
auctions  for  other  companies,  including  a  section 
where  it  sells  off  holidays  on  behalf  of  travel 
companies  and  airlines. 

'We're  recording  four  million  impressions  a 
month,'  says  marketing  manager  Rick  Jones. 

'And  we  have  a  revenue  run  rate  of  £12m.'  He  says 
Quixell  has  even  sold  houses  and  cars  in  the  past. 
Most  potential  punters  are  already  clued  up  on 
pricing  before  they  visit  the  site,  but  there  are 
instances  when  an  item  sells  for  more  than  its 
retail  price.  Quixell  also  has  a  person-to-person 
auction  area  on  the  site. 

Taking  a  different  approach,  Auctionhunter 
was  formed  this  year  by  regional  newspaper 
group  Newsquest.  An  online  version  of  the 
papers'  classified  ads,  it  has  an 
extensive  collection  of  listings,  selling 
everything  from  cars  to  cases  of  wine. 

Sellers  must  be  registered  and 
maintain  a  minimum  balance  of  £10 
in  their  account.  Auctionhunter 
charges  for  listings,  and  the  sales 
commission  is  2.5  per  cent.  There  is  no 
buyer's  premium.  Once  the  auction  has  closed  it 
is  up  to  the  buyer  to  contact  the  seller  to  arrange 
payment  and  delivery.  Offering  a  similar  service, 
Eswap.co.uk  charges  for  its  listings,  but  does  not 
charge  sales  commission  or  a  buyer's  premium. 
Computercarboot.com,  ukauctions.com,  and 
buy-sell.co.uk  run  along  similar  lines  but  with 
comparatively  few  items  up  for  sale. 

George  Brown  and  Jim  Payne  recognised  the 
value  of  online  auctions  when  they  were  creating 
a  complete  Internet  business.  'We  started  the 
auctions  as  a  way  of  getting  people  into  the  site  to 
see  what  else  we  do,'  says  Payne.  The  majority  of 
the  lots  on  Bullnet.co.uk  are  computer-related, 
but  Payne  says  the  site  has  found  surprising  hits 


in  other  areas.  'It's  items  that  are  a  bit  unusual 
which  do  well,'  he  says.  'For  instance,  our 
lock-picking  sets  have  been  very  popular.' 

As  with  any  type  of  business,  it's  important  to 
capture  the  attention  of  potential  buyers. 
Theauctionchannel.co.uk  occasionally 
broadcasts  specialist  auctions  on  Sky  Sports, 
such  as  the  one  for  tennis  memorabilia  in  the 
run-up  to  Wimbledon.  The  site's  NetBidLive 
system  allows  the  auctioneers  to  take  bids  over 
the  internet  at  the  same  time  as  telephone  bids 
and  bids  from  the  saleroom  floor.  Auctions 
coming  up  include  Phillips  rugby  memorabilia 
on  4th  October,  and  several  property  auctions. 

Other  sites  to  cast  an  eye  over  include: 
Lastminute.com  -  a  good  site  for  holidays  and 
short  breaks.  The  offers  are  usually  posted  only  a 


Most  potential  punters  are  ALREADY  CLUED  UP  on 
pricing  before  they  visit  the  site,  but  there  are  instances 
when  an  item  sells  for  more  than  its  retail  price 


short  while  before  they  are  due  to  be  taken  up. 
The  site  also  auctions  antiques  and  jewellery. 
www.morgan-auction.co.uk  is  the  auction 
website  of  the  Morgan  Computer  Co. 
Sandafayre.com  is  an  unpleasant-looking  site  for 
stamp  collectors.  Auctions  are  held  every  week, 
with  over  $lm-worth  of  stamps  available  online. 
Icollector.com  auctions  fine  art  and  collectibles. 
Onlineauctions.co.uk  is  an  auction  site  similar 
to  Quixell,  mainly  selling  computer  equipment. 
Auctions.yahoo.co.uk  was  only  formed  in  May 
this  year.  The  site  is  an  Anglicised  version  of  the 
US  site,  with  all  products  originating  in  the  US 
and  all  bids  in  US  dollars.  Bidders  have  to  pay  the 
shipping  charges  from  the  US.  □ 


128 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Illustration  by  Simon  Downs 


If  the  rush-hour  rat  race  is  a  real  pain, 

YOU  MIGHT  FIND  IT  MORE  AGREEABLE  TO  WORK 
AWAY  FROM  THE  OFFICE.  GORDON  LAING 
EXPLAINS  THE  ATTRACTIONS  OF,  AND 
REQUIREMENTS  FOR,  REMOTE  WORKING. 


People  are  changing.  Work  is 

changing.  As  we  approach  the  new 
millennium,  the  cliched  nine  to  five 
is  looking  like  an  increasingly 
endangered  species.  Why  waste  time 
traipsing  into  town  during  rush-hour  when  you 
could  work  at  home?  Why  work  at  home  when 
you  could  work  on  a  beach  -  in  a  foreign  country? 
Many  workers  are  realising  that  they  could  do 


130 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


some,  or  even  all,  of  their  work  elsewhere. 

Technology  is,  of  course,  the  great  enabler, 
but  what's  involved  in  setting  up  a  home  office? 
Does  the  purchase  of  a  notebook  make  you  an 
effective  mobile  worker?  And  what  about  where 
you  intend  to  do  your  work? 

In  this  feature  we'll  be  looking  at  the  issues 
involved  in  setting  up  a  home,  remote  or  mobile 
office  for  either  part  or  full-time  use.  We  will  also 
review  the  technology  that  will  allow  you  to 
realise  this  dream. 


Office  equipment  and  general  facilities  are 
the  last  things  most  remote  workers  think  of. 
Well,  think  again.  If  you're  serious  about 
spending  a  lot  or  even  all  of  the  time  working 
from  home,  you'll  quickly  begin  to  miss  the  office 
facilities  you  always  took  for  granted.  Good 
ergonomics  are  also  essential.  You  should  have  a 
decent  chair  and  desk,  and  make  sure  you're  not 
straining  anything  -  eyes,  wrists  or  otherwise. 

Remember,  you're  not  just  accommodating  a 
PC.  You've  also  got  to  find  room  for  a  desk,  chair, 
office  equipment  and  plenty  of  storage  for  all 
those  unexpected  materials.  In  the  future,  we  may 
all  laugh  at  the  futility  of  the  paperless  home. 

If  you've  not  gone  entirely  freelance,  ask  your 
employer  about  contributions  for  setting  up  at 
home.  Remember  you're  doing  them  a  favour  by 
becoming  more  productive  and  saving  them 
office  costs,  so  it's  not  unreasonable  to  ask  them 
for  compensations  in  return  for  your  sacrifices. 


■  Setting  up  a  remote/home  office 

Your  most  obvious  necessity  is  a 
PC  of  some  description, 
although  be  aware  that 
this  single  machine 
could  be  responsible 
for  your  livelihood. 
If  it  breaks,  you 
can't  work. 
While  the 
software 
we've 
tested 
allows 


A  A  REMOVEABLE 


MIS  (Management  storage  drive,  such 

T  r  •  AS  THE  IOMEGA  ZlP,  IS 

Information  ’ 

.  VITAL  FOR  BACKUP 

Systems)  staff  to 

remotely  reconfigure  your  system,  it's  of  no  use  if 
your  PC  won't  power-up. 

Backup  is  essential,  both  in  terms  of  a  second 
machine  and  of  course  your  vital  data.  If  you've 
been  sensible  enough  to  fit  a  backup  device,  make 
sure  you  remove  the  media.  After  all,  fire,  flood  or 
theft  are  unlikely  to  remove  the  tape  and  leave  it 
in  a  safe  place.  Speaking  of  which,  you'd  better 
make  sure  you're  insured  for  this,  too. 


Second  most  obvious  are  your 

communications.  These  are  absolutely  crucial, 
because  if  you  are  unable  to  receive  requests  for 
work  or  deliver  it,  you've  had  it.  Posting 
floppies  might  work  for  the 
most  basic 
requirements, 
but  it's  hardly 
the  height  of 
sophistication  - 
plus  you'll  need 
stamps  and  a 
nearby  letterbox. 

In  the  August 
1999  issue  of  PCW we 
looked  in  depth  at 
communications 
technologies,  so  we'll  be 
brief  here.  One  phone 
line  is  of  course  essential, 
but  again,  if  this  office  is  to  be  your  main  one, 
you'll  quickly  hanker  after  another. 

Who  wants  to  be  unobtainable  to  phone  calls 
when  sending  email  or  browsing  the  web?  Who 
wants  to  admit  that  they  have  to  hang  up  this 
voice  call  and  reconfigure  their  lines  before  being 
able  to  receive  a  fax?  A  second  line  also  allows  you 
to  more  easily  separate  business  and  personal 
charges,  which  can  be  a  real  boon  when  it  comes 
to  claiming  expenses  or  filling  out  a  tax  return. 

Speak  to  any  remote  or  mobile  worker  and  the 
one  technology  they'll  always  curse  is  their 
communications  system  -  it's  never  fast  enough. 
If  you've  worked  for  a  large  company,  you'll  miss 
fast  and  free  access  to  the  internet.  If  you're 
relying  on  a  single  56K  modem,  you'd  better  be 
prepared  to  wait  for  files  to  transfer.  You'll  also 
become  painfully  aware  of  the  wasted  bandwidth 
occupied  by  pointless  email  jokes  and  chain 
letters,  not  to  mention  huge  attachments  that  are 
sent  without  consideration  of  their  size. 

One  final  word:  make  sure  your  ISP  is  reliable, 
and  available  when  you  want  to  use  it.  You  may 
have  to  dump  your  free  account,  but  remember, 
this  is  your  livelihood. 


Athe  Nokia 
Communicator  9110 
COMBINES  A  PDA  WITH 
A  MOBILE  PHONE  - 
KILLING  TWO  BIRDS 
WITH  ONE  STONE 


■  Setting  up  a  mobile  office 

A  notebook  or  handheld  PDA  is  the  minimum 
required  for  a  mobile  office.  The  same  backup 
and  insurance  applies  even  more  so,  as  a  portable 
is  particularly  susceptible  to  theft  or  breakages. 

Remember  you're  on  battery  power,  so  learn 
how  to  make  the  most  of  any  power-saving 
utilities.  Particularly  vigilant  users  may  want  to 
download  Intel's  Power  Monitor  to  check  up  on 
which  background  Windows  utilities  are  the 
hungriest  -  you  may  get  some  surprises.  Either 
way,  make  sure  you're  fully  charged  and  that 
you're  carrying  spares  where  possible. 

Communications  in  fixed  environments  are 
similar  to  those  for  desktop  PCs.  Almost  all 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


131 


mobile  office 


rrn  - — 


■9-D-  L- 

1  V-*-**  18-1  n) 


<  O  -  *  !  J  » 


^If  your  line’s  tied 

UP  WITH  A  REMOTE 
ACCESS  SESSION,  WHY 
NOT  OPEN  A  CHAT 

Window  between 

HOST  AND  GUEST 
SYSTEMS? 


A  LapLink’s  FILE 
TRANSFER  WINDOW  IS 
AS  SIMPLE  AS  DRAG  AND 
DROP,  ALTHOUGH  YOU 
CAN’T  USE  STANDARD 

Windows  tools  to 

PERFORM  THE  SAME 
OPERATION 


portables  can  connect  to  modems  of  some 
description,  and  often  to  ISDN  too.  The 
predominant  interface  is  the  PC  Card,  although 
an  increasing  number  of  portables  (albeit  mostly 
PDAs)  are  being  fitted  with  built-in  modems.  It's 
worth  checking  a  built-in  modem's  capabilities, 
as  many  older  PDAs  only  operate  at  19.2Kbit/sec. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  anyone  wanting  to 
connect  a  modem  to  a  foreign  landline  should 
carry  a  selection  of  adaptors. 

Portables  really  come  into  their  own  with 
mobile  communications,  for  which  you'll  of 
course  need  a  mobile  phone.  In  the  old  days, 
you'd  need  a  PC  Card  interface  for  your  mobile, 
but  modern  models  often  come  with  built-in 
data  capabilities. 

Look  out  for  Ericsson's  SH888  and  Nokia's 
8810  mobiles,  both  of  which  boast  built-in  data 
facilities  and  IRDA-compliant  infra-red  ports  for 
wireless  connection  with  your  notebook  or  PDA. 
Note  that  Nokia's  popular  61 10  (aka  NK702  for 
Orange)  does  feature  infra-red,  but  no  data 
hardware  -  for  wireless  operation  you'll  need  to 


install  Nokia's  Cellular 
Data  Suite,  available 
only  for  Windows 
95/98  notebooks  but, 
sadly,  not  for 
PDAs. 

Bear  in 
mind  that 
today's  GSM 
data  rates  are 
limited  to  a 
mere  9.6Kbit/sec, 
although  this  is 
sufficient  for  basic 
email.  Mobile  data  is 

set  to  increase  dramatically  over  the  next  two 
years,  eventually  maturing  into  2Mbit/sec  rates 
[News  Analysis,  PCW September  1999].  The  first 
enhancement  is  expected  from  Orange  this 
September,  which  aims  to  launch  a  28.8Kbit/sec 
data  service  for  new  phones. 

Incidentally,  a  GSM  mobile  employs  a  digital 
connection  which,  like  ISDN  but  unlike  an 
analog  modem,  can  negotiate  a  link  almost 
instantly.  Some  ISPs  offer  specific  access 
numbers  for  mobiles,  such  as  Demon  for  Orange. 
Mobiles  also  often  work  out  cheaper  overall  for 
data  calls  than  hotel  phones. 

If  you  intend  to  use  your  phone  abroad,  talk 
to  your  operator  about  roaming  agreements. 
Remember  there  are  currently  many  more 
900MHz  GSM  networks  worldwide  than 
1,800MHz  ones,  and  that  North  America 
employs  GSM  frequencies  of  1,900MHz. 

World  mobile  travellers  should  seriously 
consider  buying  a  dual  -  or  even  triple-band 
phone.  Our  top  tip  for  mobile  upgraders  is  to 
wait  for  Nokia's  forthcoming  7110  dual-band 


Mobile  locations 


Consider  the  additional  complications 
of  a  mobile  location  for  notebook  and 
PDA  users.  Obviously,  the  issues 
concerning  power,  communication  and 
facilities  completely  change.  You’ll  be 
lucky  to  find  a  power  socket  for  your 
notebook,  and  pluggingyour  modem 
into  a  phone  line  will  be  impossible. 
You’ll  be  forced  to  send  any  emails  or 
files  viayour  mobile  phone  and  just 
pray  that  your  batteries  last  the  course. 
But  there’s  more  besides. 

Perhaps  you’d  like  to  go  outside? 
Apart  from  the  fact  that  almost  all 
notebook  and  PDA  displays  as  good  as 
disappear  in  direct  sunlight,  you’ll  also 


suddenly  discover  the  numerous 
distractions.  With  dogs  and  children 
running  around,  the  park  or  the  local 
cafe  are  suddenly  transformed  into  a 
canine  and  nursery  hell. 

When  you’re  on  the  move,  trains  and 
planes  seem  quite  reasonable  places  to 
work  until  you’ve  actually  tried.  The 
former  usually  rattle  around  so  much 
you  can’t  type,  hand-write  or  even  hear 
yourself  speak  on  the  phone.  The  latter 
are,  conversely,  so  quiet  you’ll  have 
fellow  passengers  attempting  to  escape 
your  incessant  tapping  by  jumping  out 
at  30,000  feet.  Also  remember  your 
particularly  cramped  space. 


Modern  office  workers  often 
complain  that  there’s  never  enough 
meeting  rooms,  but  when  you’ve  moved 
out,  there’s  none  at  all.  The  remote  or 
mobile  worker  may  find  themselves 
attempting  to  conduct  serious  meetings 
in  the  aforementioned  locations. 

Better  bets  are  relaxed  restaurants 
or  even  hotel  lobbies.  Sadly,  the  ones 
which  seem  most  tolerable  to  such 
visitors  tend  to  be  located  in  the  very 
city  centres  you’re  trying  so  hard  to 
avoid.  You  may  be  better  off  meeting 
clients  at  their  offices  -  this  saves  them 
any  hassle,  and  of  course  gets  you  out 
of  the  house. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


133 


mobile  office 


^ mobile  with  WAP  (Wireless  Application 
Protocol)  Microbrowser  and  built-in 
infra-red  data  hardware. 


■  Whose  file  is  it  anyway? 

So  youVe  bought  the  required  equipment  to 
break  free  from  the  office;  now,  how  do  you  do  it? 
The  biggest  issue  beyond  slow  or  unreliable 
communications,  is  making  sure  that  you've  got 
the  required  information,  and  that  it's  up  to  date. 

If  you  find  yourself  regularly  working  between 
two  systems,  it's  crucial  that  both  can  access  the 
other's  data,  and  that  it  be  synchronised.  It's  no 
good  having  two  different  files  or  schedules  with 
the  same  name  -  which  one  is  correct? 

Clearly,  it's  vital  that  the  systems  attempting 
to  remain  synchronised  are  both  speaking  the 
same  time  and  date;  bear  this  in  mind  when 
travelling  too,  and  use  a  visiting  time-zone 
setting,  rather  than  resetting  the  clock  which 
stamps  your  files.  If  your  clocks  are  correct,  then 
there's  nothing  stopping  you  simply  comparing 
files  by  hand  to  verify  which  is  the  most  recent. 

Document  and  email  folders  can  happily  be 
copied  wholesale  from  one  system  to  another  as 
you  travel  between  locations.  It  may  be  low-tech, 
but  you  can  fit  a  lot  of  messages  on  a  floppy  and  a 
lot  of  documents  on  a  ZIP  or  JAZ  cartridge. 


If  removable  media  isn't  suitable,  then 
consider  a  direct  cable  connection  (DCC). 
Windows  98's  DCC  supports  file  transfer  over 
serial  and  parallel,  but  not  USB  connections. 
Windows  98  also  supports  infra-red  file  transfer 
between  IR-equipped  devices.  Applications  such 
as  Office  2000  are  becoming  increasingly  savvy  to 
shared  documents  or  areas  where  files  can  be 
stored,  ready  for  pickup  by  another  system. 

Finally,  if  you  don't  mind  downloading 
messages  twice,  you  could  set  one  of  your 
system's  email  clients  to  leave  a  copy  of  the 
messages  on  your  ISP's  server  so  they’re  still 
available  when  your  other  system  accesses  them. 

PDAs  are  becoming  increasingly  powerful, 
but  almost  all  expect  to  be  connected  to  a  host 
PC.  Consequently,  the  more  sophisticated 
models  -  such  as  the  Psion  Series  5,  those  using 
Windows  CE  and  the  3Com  Palm  -  all  boast 
effective  document,  email  and  schedule 
synchronisation  tools.  All  three  will  happily  chat 
with  your  PC  and  swap  information,  so  that  both 
machines  are  up-to-date.  Bear  in  mind  that  most 
PDAs  prefer  to  compare  notes  with  fully-fledged 
PC  Personal  Information  Managers  such  as 
Schedule+  and  Outlook,  and  won't  want  to  speak 
with  small  email  clients  such  as  Outlook  Express 
and  Netscape  Mail. 


Remote  Access 
Packages 


Professional,  Symantec's  pcANYWHERE  9.0,  and 
Stac  Reachout  Enterprise  8,  all  tested  under 
Windows  98  but  also  available  for  95,  NT  and 
3.1/DOS.  All  offer  remarkably  similar  remote 
access  and  file  transfer  facilities,  but  with  a  slight 
bias  towards  different  users.  We'll  mention 
shared  features  and  pick  out  where  each  differs. 


Notebooks  running  full  Windows 

operating  systems  may  as  well  be 
desktop  PCs  in  terms  of  built-in 
synchronisation  tools.  They'll  work 
with  DCC  and  the  various  sharing  systems 
described  in  the  main  text,  but  for  more 
sophisticated  exchanges  you’ll  need  to  invest  in 

some  dedicated 
software. 

We  looked 
at  Traveling 
Software's 
LapLink 


pcANYWHERE’s  ^Remote  ControP  allows 
you  to  see  another  PC's  desktop  in  a  window  on 
your  very  own  screen.  You  can  operate  the  remote 
PC  as  if  you  were  there,  exploring  drives  and 
network  connections,  launching  applications, 
printing  pages  and  changing  settings.  The  PC 
being  controlled  shows  the  pointer  moving 
around  and  characters  being  typed  as  if  by  a 
phantom  presence  -  spooky.  The  remote  desktop 
can  be  scaled  to  fit  your  window  and  displayed  in 
a  reduced  number  of  colours,  with  wallpaper 
disabled  for  better  performance.  Even  at 
14.4Kbit/sec,  Remote  Control  still  felt  quite 
responsive,  which  is  reassuring  for 
mobile  phone  users. 

Clearly,  Remote  Control  is  great  for 
checking  or  acquiring  data  you  forgot 
to  bring  with  you,  and  is  equally  useful 
for  MIS  departments  to  diagnose  and 
directly  fix  problems.  It's  also  obvious 
that  some  level  of  security  is  in  order. 
LapLink,  pcANYWHERE  and  Reachout 
all  offer  varying  levels  of  access  to  a 


•cANYWHERE’s  Remote 
introl.  Note  the  guest  has 

UNCHED  AN  AUDIO  FILE  ON  THE 
>ST,  BUT  ONLY  THE  HOST  CAN 
AR  IT  PLAYING.  REMOTE 
NTROL  ONLY  COMMUNICATES 
E  POINTER’S  POSITION  AND 
Y  KEYBOARD  STROKES 


131 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


mobile  office 


defined  list  of  users, 
and  can  also  force  a 


hangup  and  modem  callback  to  listed  numbers 
only  for  added  security.  Access  is  via  cable,  direct 
modem  (or  ISDN),  IR  (where  supported)  or  a 
variety  of  network  protocols  including  TCP/IR 
TCP/IP  requires  you  to  know  the  IP  address  of 
the  target  machine,  although  those  which 
employ  dynamic  allocation  (DHCP)  are  able  to 
use  dedicated  WINS  servers. 


File  transfer  is  as  easy  as  drag-and-drop  in  a 
Windows  Explorer  style  environment,  with  the 
host  PC  in  one  pane  and  the  guest  alongside. 
However,  you  can't  open  a  remote  document 
within  an  application  before  transferring  it  to 
your  local  PC,  and  while  the  drag-and-drop  is 
simple,  you  can  only  perform  it  using  the 
software's  own  tools:  you  can't  drag  a  file  from 
the  remote  window  directly  onto  your  local 
desktop,  for  example,  but  you  can  copy  a  remote 
item  into  the  local  clipboard.  Each  package  offers 
various  wizards  to  synchronise  files  in  pairs  of 
folders,  which  is  a  great  way  of  keeping,  say,  your 
email  inbox  and  current  working  documents 
folders  up  to  date. 

Of  course,  sometimes  files  change  only 
slightly:  you  may  have  a  100-page  document  with 
a  single  word  changed,  or  an  image  retouched  in 
one  corner  only.  Transferring  the  entire  file  again 
is  obviously  a  waste  of  bandwidth,  so  fortunately 
all  three  packages  recognise  any  changes  and  only 
send  the  differences.  We  verified  this  by  observing 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Reachout  Enterprise  8 

Price  £1 75.08  (£149  ex  VAT)  ( two  licences) 

Contact  Stac  01 344  302900 

www.stac.com 

★★★★ 

pcANYWH  ERE  9.0 

Price  £1 69.20  (£1 44  ex  VAT)  ( two  licences). 
Upgrade  £66. 98  (£57  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Symantec  01 71  616  5600 

www.  syman  tec.  co.uk 

★★★★★ 

LapLink  Professional 
Price  £176.19  (£149.95  ex  VAT)  ( two  licences) 
Contact  Traveling  Software  0800  374849 

www.  laplink.  com 

Intel  Power  Monitor 

http://channel.  intel.  com/mobile/tech 
forum/sw.htm 


ATHE  CLEAN 

interface  of  shorter  update  times 

pcANYWH  ERE  when  slightly  modifying 

with  icons  for  its  Word  documents, 

various  modes  bitmap  files  and  even 

multi-layered 

Photoshop  5  images.  All  three  packages  also 
automatically  compress  files  for  better 
performance. 

Differences  between  the  packages  are 

subtle.  On  the  supplied  cable  front, 
pcANYWHERE  comes  with  a  25  to  25  pin  serial, 
Lap  Link  is  accompanied  by  9  to  9/25  pin  serial, 
while  meanie  Reachout  features  none.  Cables  are 
cheap  though,  so  don't  make  a  buying  decision 
based  on  this.  However,  LapLink  is  currently  the 
only  one  to  support  an  optional  USB  cable  for  a 
12Mbit/sec  connection  between  Windows  98 
systems  (£25). 

Presentation  is  slightly  different  between  the 
packages.  LapLink,  with  its  large,  friendly  icons, 
is  the  most  consumer-looking  offering,  while 
pcANYWHERE  and  Reachout's  graphics  will 
appeal  to  the  small  business  or  corporate  users. 
With  USB  support,  LapLink  offers  the  most 
comprehensive  file  transfer  options,  while 
Reachout  markets  itself  to  'centrally-managed 
corporate  remote  control',  and  pcANYWHERE 
sits  somewhere  between  the  two. 

Finally,  it's  worth  mentioning  that  LapLink 
and  pcANYWHERE  are  also  available  in 
Windows  CE  versions,  the  former  as  a  free  3.5Mb 
download  to  registered  Lap  Link  Pro  users,  and 
the  latter  as  host  or  remote  flavours  for  £79  and 
£39  respectively.  We  were  unable  to  get  hold  of 
pcANYWHERE  CE,  and  Lap  Link  CE  inexplicably 
failed  to  run  on  our  HP  Jornada  680. 

Finding  a  winner  is  hard,  as  all  three  packages 
do  essentially  the  same  thing  and  there's  no 
difference  in  cost.  Ultimately  it  boils  down  to 
which  interface  you  prefer.  pcANYWHERE 
certainly  looks  the  smartest,  but  with  optional 
support  for  both  USB  connection  and  a  free 
Windows  CE  version,  LapLink  Professional 
fractionally  nudges  ahead  to  win  Editor's  Choice. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


New  dimension 


The  third  way 


Creating  3D  images  has  traditionally  been 

SEEN  AS  EXPENSIVE  OR  TIME  CONSUMING,  BUT  ALL 
THAT  IS  ABOUT  TO  CHANGE.  ADELE  DYER  MAKES 
THE  JUMP  TO  ANOTHER  DIMENSION. 


3D  is  only  good  for  one  thing, 

some  would  say  -  games.  But  all 
that  could  change  in  the  next  few 
years  as  3D  cameras  and  printers 
come  onto  the  market  at  an 
affordable  price.  The  3D  camera 
will  allow  you  to  photograph 
objects  and  recreate  them  in  the  camera  itself, 
before  transferring  them  to  a  PC.  The  3D 
printer,  meanwhile,  will  make  it  much  easier  for 
designers  to  create  quick,  cheap  3D  models  of 
the  objects  they  are  working  on.  Until  recently 
there  were  only  two  ways  to  create  3D  images  - 
either  use  a  3D  laser  scanner  to  record  an 
existing  object,  or  use  CAD  or  3D  rendering 
software  to  draw  the  object  from  scratch. 

The  impetus  behind  the  3D  digital  camera  is 
unusual  in  that  it  comes  from  a  software,  rather 


▼lVlETACREATIONS, 
MetaFlash  FITS 

BETWEEN  THE  LENS 
AND  THE  BODY  OF  THE 

Minolta  3D  1500 


than  a  hardware,  vendor.  MetaCreations  - 
known  for  graphics  and  Web-creation  software 
such  as  Painter,  Poser  and  Ray  Dream  Studio  - 
has  created  a  hardware  and  software 
combination,  the  MetaFlash,  that  fits  on  to 
certain  cameras.  Minolta  will  be  the  first 
manufacturer  to  produce  a  3D  camera,  the  3D 
1500,  which  uses  the  MetaFlash  and  the  Dimage 
EX  as  the  basic  unit.  Minolta  plans  to  release  the 
camera  in  the  autumn.  The  3D  1500  has  a 
detachable  lens  and  so  the  MetaFlash  hardware 
fits  between  the  camera  lens  and  the  camera 
body,  attaching  at  the  point  where  the  lens  has 
been  removed.  The  lens  is  then  attached  to  the 
other  end  of  the  MetaFlash  hardware,  effectively 
putting  it  in  the  middle  of  the  camera. 

Working  with  the  MetaFlash  hardware,  the 
camera  does  not  flash  once,  but  twice.  The 
standard  digital  camera  flashes  to  provide 
enough  light  for  it  to  take  the  normal  2D  image, 
while  the  MetaFlash  flashes  an  additional  series 
of  thin  lines  of  light.  These  stripes  of  light  are 
then  captured  as  a  second  image  and  the 
software  can  calculate  -  by 
looking  at  where  the  stripes  are 
lighter  or  darker  -  whether  the 
shape  at  that  point  is  concave  or 
convex.  The  second  image  is  then 
superimposed  over  the  first,  and, 
using  a  technique  known  as 
structured-light-based 
triangulation,  the  software  in  the 
camera  uses  the  information 
gathered  from  the  stripes  to  turn  the  flat  image 
into  a  3D  image.  The  geometry  of  this  technique 
is,  we  were  assured,  quite  easy,  as  the  distance 
between  the  light  source  and  the  lens  is  constant. 
However,  ambient  light  should  be  kept  to  a 
minimum,  the  object  should  be  placed  between 
30cm  and  lm  away  from  the  camera,  and,  most 
importantly,  the  object  must  fill  the  entire 
picture.  This  technology  can  be  used  not  only  to 
determine  shapes,  but  also  to  pick  up  textures, 
again  shown  by  the  diffusion  of  the  light. 

This  first  iteration  only  takes  images  from  a 
single  view,  although  more  than  one  image  can 
be  stitched  together  on  a  PC  to  create  a  complete 
3D  object.  The  next  version  of  MetaFlash  aims  to 
eliminate  this  stage  and  to  create  the  entire  3D 


in 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


object  in  the  camera  itself.  Kodak  plans  to  use 
this  next  version,  which  will  work  with  a 
turntable.  As  the  object  is  spun  around  on  the 
turntable,  the  camera  will  track  the  surface  of  the 
object  and  determine  how  many  shots  it  must 
take  in  order  to  compose  a  complete  3D  object. 
The  software  in  the  camera  will  then  stitch  these 
views  together  to  create  an  object  that  can  be 
spun  around  horizontally.  Shots  of  the  top  and 
bottom  of  the  object  will,  once  again,  have  to  be 
stitched  on  using  a  PC. 

3D  images  captured  in  this  way  can  be  used 
for  any  number  of  purposes,  although  Kodak  has 
its  eyes  on  Internet  and  intranet  use.  For  example, 
if  you  have  a  company  that  makes  wedding 
dresses,  you  could  put  3D  images  of  the  garments 
on  your  site,  allowing  retailers  or  customers  to  see 
how  they  look  from  all  angles. 


The  3D  printers  are  a  little  simpler 
in  operation.  Known  as  concept 
modellers,  these  printers  are  small 
enough  and  quiet  enough  to  sit  in  an 
office  and  can  produce  3D  models  in  a  matter  of 
hours.  Previously,  the  only  options  available  to 
those  who  needed  models  were  either  to  use 
plastic  extrusion  modellers  -  which  are  only 
suited  to  certain  uses  -  or  to  use  stereo 
lithographic  modellers,  which  are  based  around 
lasers  and  can  only  be  used  in  a  clean  room,  free 
from  all  dust  and  dirt. 

Bix  Computer  Applications  sells  a  concept 
modeller  known  as  the  Thermojet,  designed  by 
3D  Systems.  It  works  in  very  much  the  same  way 
as  an  office  inkjet  works,  squirting  material  out 
of  a  series  of  nozzles.  However,  the  difference  is 
that  the  image  can  be  built  up  in  layers  to  form  a 
3D  object. 

Images  to  be  output  are  created  in  a  CAD 
package  and  output  to  the  printer  as  a  .stl  file. 
The  printer's  drivers 
first  splice  the  image, 
cutting  it  into  thin 
sections  horizontally 
from  top  to  bottom. 

Then  the  actual 
printing  can  begin. 

The  material  used  is  a  kind  of  wax,  which  is 
constantly  heated  and  kept  in  a  liquid  state.  The 
wax  is  then  sprayed  through  an  array  of 352  jets, 
which  move  backwards  and  forwards  across  the 
printer.  In  each  pass,  a  layer  of  wax  0.36mm  thick 
is  laid  down.  This  dries  very  quickly  and  so  the 
wax  is  solid  before  the  next  layer  is  applied. 

The  process  is  relatively  quick,  with  the  time 
taken  dependent  on  how  tall  the  model  is.  Bix 
calculates  it  takes  around  about  an  hour  to  build 
1.5in  of  the  model.  So,  something  small  like  a 
mobile  phone  could  be  created  in  a  couple  of 
hours  and  for  a  cost  of  around  £5.  However,  the 
printer  does  not  speed  up  when  creating  smaller 


In  the  future  everyone 
could  have  one  of  these 
printers  in  their  garage 


objects  as  it  still  takes  the  same  amount  of  time 
for  the  jets  to  cross  the  printer.  In  fact,  to  increase 
the  time-efficiency,  it  makes  sense  to  print  two  or 
more  models  at  a  time  -  covering  the  lOin-square 
base  with  various  models. 

Once  the  model  is  complete  it  is  still  slightly 
warm,  so  Bix  suggests  you  should  leave  it  in  the 
machine  for  half  an  hour  or  put  it  in  the  fridge 
to  firm  up. 

At  the  moment,  this  kind  of  system  is  being 
used  mostly  by  companies  that  are  working  on 
multiple  iterations  of  the  same  design.  So,  for 
instance,  if  a  client  has  commissioned  a  design 
for  a  new  telephone,  but  wants  to  see  four 
different  variations  on  the  same  idea,  all  four  can 
be  created  quickly 
and  cheaply. 
Similarly,  the 
designers  can  show 
one  model  to  the 
client  in  the 
morning,  get  their 
feedback  and  show  them  a  modified  model  in 
the  afternoon. 

In  the  future,  it  could  be  that  every  household 
has  one  of  these  printers  in  the  garage  and  it 
could  be  put  to  any  number  of  different  uses. 
Your  children,  for  example,  could  find  the  design 
for  a  new  toy  on  the  Internet  and  download  it  to 
the  printer,  cutting  out  that 
maddening  trip  to  Toys  CR'  Us. 

Or  you  could  browse  for  new 
objects  for  your  home  and  be 
able  to  print  out  a  3D  model 
before  you  actually  decided  to 
buy  them.  □ 


AThe  ThermoJet 

SOLID-OBJECT 
PRINTER,  WHICH 
ALLOWS  DESIGNERS  TO 
PRODUCE  HIGHLY 
ACCURATE  PHYSICAL 
MODELS  OF  THEIR 
DESIGNS  DIRECT  FROM 
THEIR  CAD  SYSTEMS. 
The  ThermoJet  is 

AVAILABLE  IN  THE  UK 

from  Bix  Computer 
Applications,  a 

DIVISION  OF  CADTEK 

Systems 


PCW  CONTACTS 

Bix  Computer  Applications  01 15  8404069 
www.bix.co.uk 

Minolta  0 1 908 200400  www.minoltaeurope.com 
Kodak  0800  28 1 487  www.kodak.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


139 


Rov  Stringer 


Stringer  show 

Talking  shop  with  Roy  Stringer  has  always  been  a  matter  of  flying  in  the  face  of  convention. 

Ian  Burley  gets  a  lesson  in  re-educating  the  IT  industry  from  tne  Navihedron  pioneer. 


In  a  time  in  which  most  of  us 

continue  to  be  astonished  by  what  the 
electronic  medium  is  capable  of  in 
conveying  information  across  the  globe 
in  an  instant,  there  are  some  who  are  far 
from  happy  about  the  way  the  IT 
industry  is  developing.  One  such  person 
is  Roy  Stringer,  who  currently  carries  the 
impressive  tag  of  creative  director  and  chief 
hypermedia  architect  at  the  Liverpool-based 
multimedia  production  company,  Amaze  Ltd. 

Ld  reluctantly  use  a  well  worn  cliche  to 
describe  Stringer  -  he's  a  guru,  a  hypermedia 
guru.  He  has  his  own  gurus  too  and  a  significant 
influence  on  Stringer  is  Ted  Nelson,  who 
invented  the  terms  hypermedia  and  hypertext. 

Stringer  wholeheartedly  echoes  Nelson's 
battle-cry  for  a  change  to  hypermedia  standards: 

'Electronic  media  and  hypertext  are 
completely  screwed  up.  But  this  is  hardly 
surprising,  because  the  computer  world  itself  is 
screwed  up,  tangled  in  dumb  decisions  made 

B Stringer  will  argue  vehemently  that  compared  to  today’s 
■  ubiquitous  IT  scene,  HYPERMEDIA  IS  DOWNRIGHT 
■  FUTURISTIC,  yet  its  origins  date  back  to  the  1960s 

long  ago,  making  it  fundamentally  a  mess.  It's 
time  to  start  over.' 

Even  the  Web  is  a  target  for  criticism  - 
Stringer  points  out  that  its  power  is  too  often 
wasted  by  poor  design.  This,  in  turn,  relies  too 
heavily  on  the  linear  presentation  of  data  and 
unwieldy  hierarchical  structures  which  are 
themselves  difficult  to  navigate.  It's  not  in 
Stringer's  nature  to  sit  around  philosophising 
about  the  deficiencies  in  the  computer  world  - 
he's  actively  trying  to  get  us  to  break  away  from 
the  old  'linear'  way  of  presenting  and  absorbing 
information.  This  guru  is  also  an  evangelist. 

Stringer  describes  himself  as  an 

'independent,  self-taught  multimedia  producer, 
hypermedia  architect  and  techno-therapist.'  His 


claim  to  fame  is  the  concept  of  the  Navihedron  - 
a  three-dimensional  hypermedia  navigation  tool 
which  utilises  bi-directional  linking  and  context 
sensitivity.  Stringer  expects  this  will  replace  the 
system  of  hierarchical  menus  we  are  all  so 
familiar  with  today  in  the  design  of  computer 
user  interfaces,  applications  and  websites. 

Another  spotlight  is  about  to  shine  on 
Stringer  as  he  is  in  the  middle  of  a  major 
Navihedron-based  collaboration  with  the  famous 
physicist  and  author  of  A  Brief  History  of  Time, 
Stephen  Hawking.  This  is  Stephen  Hawking’s 
Virtual  Universe,  an  online  realtime  3D 
environment  to  explain  the  principles  of 
theoretical  physics. 

When  I  spoke  to  Stringer,  we  were  at  the 
British  Academy  of  Film  and  Television  Arts 
(BAFTA).  In  a  couple  of  hours,  Stringer  was  due 
to  rehearse  for  his  presentation  that  evening  to  a 
BAFTA  organised  event  called  Interactive  Learning 
in  Education,  sponsored  by  NESTA,  the 

government  funded  National 
Endowment  for  Science 
Technology  and  the  Arts. 
Stringer  was  to  share  the 
limelight  with  both  the  movie 
director  and  producer  David 
Puttnam  and  the  Culture 
Secretary,  Chris  Smith. 

Out  of  Stringer's  bag  emerged  a  brand  new 
Apple  G3  PowerBook  -  the  latest  slimline  version. 
He  was  determined  to  show  off  his  and  Amaze's 
work  -  a  multimedia  exploration  of  the  human 
immune  system  called  Immunology.  It's  an  early 
example  of  the  use  of  a  Navihedron  user 
interface.  The  Mac  is  Stringer's  platform  of 
choice,  he  even  worked  at  Apple  for  a  while,  but 
his  crusade  to  change  information  technology  is 
nothing  to  do  with  hardware  standards. 

An  enormous  white  blood  corpuscle  edges 
across  the  PowerBook's  screen,  and  as  it 
encounters  one  of  a  myriad  of  other  blood 
components  and  biological  invaders,  an 
accompanying  Navihedron  window  of  linked 
information  changes  automatically  in 
synchronisation  with  the  unfolding  context.  As 


140 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Stringer's  fingers  caressed  the  PowerBook's 
touch  pad,  the  blood  cell  animation  moved 
backwards  in  time  -  we  could  relive  the 
experience  and  re-absorb  the  tale  again, 
reinforcing  the  concepts  which  were  being 
introduced  to  us.  Every  bit  of  information  held  in 
this  hypermedia  'book'  is  accessible  in  three  clicks 
of  the  mouse.  Try  doing  that  with  Yahoo... 

A  bottomless  well  of  energy  seems  to  emanate 
from  Stringer,  he  has  so  much  to  say  and  is 
consumed  by  his  passionate  self-belief.  His 
conversation  dances  between  topics  as  wide- 
ranging  as  literature,  art,  science,  and  philosophy. 
You  could  be  talking  to  a  university  lecturer,  but 
Stringer  had  a  very  unconventional  education. 

His  experience  of  university  started  at  the 
age  of  12,  but  didn't  actually  involve  going  to 
lectures.  It  involved  watching  the  Open 
University  on  television.  Later,  at  the  stage  when 
many  teenagers  think  about  specialising  in  a 
favoured  subject  in  preparation  for  university, 
Stringer  and  the  education  system  went  in 
opposite  directions.  Stringer  has  never  let 
convention  hinder  his  thirst  for  knowledge.  The 
traditional  education  system,  from  his  early 


teens,  could  not  cope  with  Roy  Stringer,  but  years 
later  he  would  renew  his  links  with  the  education 
world  by  joining  the  staff  of  the  Learning  Method 
Unit  of  the  Liverpool  John  Moores  University. 
This  was  later  spun-off  as  an  independent 
business,  which  became  Amaze  Ltd  in  1997. 

We  tend  to  think  of  hypermedia  as  being  an 
ultra-modern  concept.  Stringer  will  argue 
vehemently  that  compared  to  today’s  ubiquitous 
IT  scene,  hypermedia  is  downright  futuristic,  yet 
its  origins  date  back  to  the  1960s.  Stringer 
remembers  how  his  interest  in  hypermedia 
began:  CI  started  hearing  about  computers  and 
hypermedia  when  I  was  about  12,  which  is  going 
back  about  3 1  years  now.'  It  was  a  difficult  time. 
Stringer's  father  died  when  he  was  seven.  He  has 
his  mother  to  thank  for  his  interest  in  computers 
-  indeed,  for  his  interest  in  education  altogether. 

CI  remember  saying  to  her  that  I  was  bored  one 
day,  like  12-year-olds  do.  She  told  me  I  had  no 
right  to  be  bored  because  there  were  too  many 
things  that  I  didn't  understand  and  that  these 
things  I  could  work  out  for  myself.  She  got  me  up 
the  next  morning  at  6am,  and  sat  me  in  front  of 
the  TV  to  watch  the  Open  University.' 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


141 


INTERVIE 


Rov  Stringer 


He  was  hooked,  but  after  this  nobody  at 
Stringer's  school  understood  what  he  was  going 
on  about  most  of  time,  talking  about  relativity, 
quantum  mechanics,  social  history,  Mondrian 
and  other  esoteric  university  topics. 

By  the  time  he  left  school,  Stringer  had  come 
across  computers  through  the  Open  University. 
It  was  then  that  Stringer  became  acquainted  with 
the  terms  'hypertext'  and  'hypermedia',  coined  by 
Ted  Nelson  back  in  1965. 

Hypermedia  was  a  step  beyond  the  television 
and  worlds  away  from  the  philosophy  of  the 
classroom.  'I  remember  thinking  how  nicely  that 
model  mapped  on  to  my  own 
understanding  of  what  the 
purpose  of  information  was 
about  -  as  opposed  to  the 
way  they  were  trying  to  instil 
it  into  you.  So  that  was  when 
I  started  thinking  about 
hypermedia  and  ways  of 
actually  engineering  it.' 

One  theory  as  to  why 

computing  is  'screwed  up'  - 
to  re-quote  Nelson  -  is  that 
programming  is  a  dying  skill. 
Stringer  is  concerned  that 
these  days  we  aren't  exposed 
to  the  practice  of 
programming  any  more.  'I 
was  on  a  panel  at  a 
Macromedia  conference  a  couple  of  weeks  ago. 
The  panel  was  discussing  whether  or  not 
designers  were  valued  properly  and  I  asked  the 
audience  there  if  anyone  considered  themselves  a 
programmer  or  even  a  half-decent  programmer, 
and  not  a  single  hand  went  up.'  According  to 
Stringer,  using  tools  like  Director  simply  to 
create  animations  inside  frames  is  not 
programming.  'We're  missing  opportunities  to 
do  interesting  and  engaging  interactive  things 
with  Director;  instead  people  are  just  using  it  to 
make  their  print  designs  move  around  a  bit.' 


Awareness  that  the  standard 

graphical  computer  user  interface 
model  exemplified  by  Macs  and 
Windows  is  incredibly  old  in  computer 
terms  sparks  near-resentment  in  Stringer:  'Like 
anything  with  a  metaphor,  the  metaphor  will 
always  constrain  you.  It's  like  the  desktop 
metaphor  is  constraining  what  you  can  do  with 
PCs  and  Macs  now.  For  the  life  of  me  I  can't 
understand  why  we  haven't  got  a  full-on  3D 
working  environment  on  the  desktop.  Why  we 
are  stuck  with  a  2D  symbolic  plane  with  little 
icons  in  the  corner  just  defeats  me.  It  took  us 
seven  years  to  go  from  a  command  line  interface 
on  a  personal  computer,  like  my  Nascom  stuff,  to 
the  first  graphical  user  interface.  We've  had 


graphical  user  interfaces  for  15  years  now  and 
they  still  haven't  changed.' 

Stringer  warns  that  3D  has  its  own 

limitations:  'I'm  not  sure  that  immersive  3D 
environments  are  conducive  to  work 
environments  on  a  computer  screen.  Again,  it's 
too  metaphorical.  A  car  isn't  a  metaphor  for  a 
horse  and  carriage  -  it  used  to  be,  but  it  isn't  any 
more.  A  motor  car  isn't  a  horse  and  carriage  and 
so  a  computer  isn't  an  office  desk.' 

Even  that  holy  grail  of  computing,  voice 
control,  is  too  metaphorical,  according  to 
Stringer:  'The  metaphor  there  is  the 
conversation.  I  don't  think  we're  even  close  with 
the  technology.  All  I  can  ever  see  in  those 
implementations  is  DOS  -  precise  syntax  which 
makes  precise  things  happen.  If  you  don't  say 
things  in  the  right  order,  it  won't  understand 
you.'  True  machine  understanding  could  make 
voice  control  viable,  but  Stringer  feels  that 
scenario  is  a  long  way  off  yet. 

In  the  meantime,  you  will  soon  be  able  to 
download  a  Navihedron  applet  which  manages 
your  computer's  shortcuts.  Called  My-Nav,  the 
applet  will  be  available  from  the  official 
Navihedron  website  at  www.navihedron.com. 

The  inherent  geometrical  simplicity  of  the 
Navihedron  has  triggered  other  ideas,  like 
N-Space.  This  idea,  which  Stringer  has  patented, 
is  a  remarkably  easy  and  logical  way  of  using  the 
nine  numbers  in  a  telephone  keypad  for 
information  navigation.  N-Space  could  become  a 
hit  with  the  emerging  generation  of  multimedia- 
enabled  mobile  phones,  for  example. 

Stringer  has  a  couple  of  bees  in  his  bonnet 
about  the  future.  He  enthusiastically  predicts 
that  within  five  years  the  internet  will  be  the 
primary  source  of  digital  media,  including 
audio-visual  media.  His  expectation  relies  on 
rapid  growth  of  internet  bandwidth  and  end-user 
accessibility,  but  he  rejects  the  concern  that  five 
years  is  too  soon. 

He  also  predicts  that  within  10  years,  women 
will  replace  men  as  the  dominant  gender  in  IT. 
Stringer  feels  that  today's  IT  smacks  too  much  of 
'men's  toys'.  IT  is  an  enabling  technology  for 
communication  and  as  women  are  usually  better 
communicators  than  men,  IT  will  provide 
women  with  a  key  advantage. 

Roy  Stringer  represents  that  next  generation 
in  the  evolution  of  the  personal  computer.  He 
wants  to  see  PC  concepts  move  away  from  narrow 
metaphors  to  a  more  user-environmental  view. 
With  its  vested  interest  in  market  stability, 
Stringer  is  up  against  the  corporate  inertia  of 
Microsoft  and  even  Apple.  However,  Stringer 
believes,  and  many  others  hope,  that  innovations 
such  as  the  Navihedron,  My-Nav  and  N-Space 
will  usher  in  that  new  era  -  sooner  or  later.  □ 


142 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


144 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


AMD’s  bold  claims  for  the  first-ever  seventh  generation 
processors  —  that  they  are  Pill  beaters  —  are  put  to  the  test 
as  the  Athlon  is  asked  to  account  for  all  the  hype. 

AMD  has  generated  a  lot 
of  hype  around  its  latest 
processor,  the  Athlon, 
codenamed  the  K7.  The  claims  have 
been  ambitious.  AMD  says  the  first 
ever  seventh  generation  processors  will 
outperform  Intel’s  sixth  generation 
Pentium  III.  The  processors  are  very 
new  and  the  motherboards  are  even 
newer,  but  we  have  managed  to 
persuade  some  manufacturers  to  part 
with  their  prize  possessions  and  allow 
us  to  put  the  first  Athlon  machines 
through  their  paces. 

We  were  most  interested  in  whether 
our  vigorous  benchmark  programs 
would  find  the  Athlon  as  fast  as  AMD 
claims,  and  whether  it  really  does 
outperform  the  Pentium  III.  With  regard 
to  the  machines  themselves,  we  wanted 
to  see  ifthe  manufacturers  had 
maximised  the  potential  ofthe  chip  with 
high-quality  supporting  components. 

The  choice  of  graphics  card  was 
especially  important,  because  we  wanted 
to  see  whether  the  improved  3DNow! 
instructions  really  did  make  a  difference. 

We  also  asked  for  some  kind  of  backup 


device  to  be  included,  to  ensure  that 
each  machine  in  the  group  test  had  a 
well  rounded  specification. 


Contents 

148  From  l<5  failure  to  l<7  confidence 

150  Atlas  Meridian  K7-600 

151  Carrera  Octane  M600 

154  Evesham  Vale  Athlon  600 

155  Mesh  Matrix  600D 
160  Panrix  Magnum  600 

165  PCW  Labs  report 

166  Table  of  features 
168  Editor’s  Choice 

*  Tested  and  reviewed  by  Riyad  Emeran  and Jason  Jenkins 


Ratings _ 

Highly  recommended 
★★★★  Great  buy 
★★★  Good  buy 
★★  Shop  around 
^  Not  recommended 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


145 


AMD:  the  long  road  from 
K5  failure  to  K7  confidence 


In  producing  the  Athlon,  Advanced 
Micro  Devices  (AMD)  has  built 
upon  the  expertise  it  acquired 
through  years  of  making  processors. 
Founded  in  1 969  byjerry  Sanders  and 
seven  others,  it  has  grown  from  humble 
beginnings  in  the  founders’  lounge  to  a 
multinational  company  that  employs 
over  1 3,000  people  worldwide  and 
represents  Intel’s  greatest  threat  in  the 
processor  market. 

Always  involved  in  the  design  and 
manufacture  of  processors  for  a  variety 
of  markets,  AMD’s  recent  history  begins 
with  the  l<5  processor.  Up  until  this 
point,  the  company  had  been  producing 
286,  386  and  486  processors  that  were 
directly  derived  from  Intel’s  own  designs. 

The  l<5  was  AMD’s  first 
independently  produced  x86  processor 
and  was  intended  to  break  Intel’s 
domination  ofthe  market  by  being  faster 
and  cheaper  than  Intel’s  range.  This  was 
more  difficult  than  the  company  had 
hoped  for,  however,  and  the  chip  was  late 
to  market.  Running  at  various  speeds 
between  75MHz  and  1 1 6MHz,  the  chip 
suffered  from  performance  and  reliability 
problems  that  meant  it  never  really 
threatened  Intel’s  grip  on  the  market. 

After  the  relative  failure  ofthe  l<5, 
AMD  realised  it  had  to  do  better.  The 
answer  to  its  design  problems  presented 
itself  in  the  form  ofthe  acquisition  of 
Nexgen  in  1 996.  Using  Nexgen’s  chip 
designs  as  the  basis  for  a  new  family  of 
CPUs,  the  l<6  has  been  more  successful. 

There  are  two  versions  still  available 
today.  The  K6-2  -  launched  in  May  1 998 
to  compete  with  the  Pentium  II,  which 
had  been  released  one  year  earlier -was 
hampered  by  a  lack  of  fast  Level  2  cache, 
although  the  low  price  made  it  a  very 
attractive  option. 

As  AMD  started  to  win  market  share, 
Intel  was  forced  to  introduce  the  Celeron 
processor  -  essentially  a  budget  version 
ofthe  Pentium  II  -  to  avoid  losing  the 
budget  market.  The  use  ofthe  3DNow! 
instructions  was  intended  to  improve  3D 
performance  for  software  that  was 
specially  optimised,  a  factor  that  made 
the  K6-2  more  attractive  to  gamers.  Intel 


has  emulated  this  idea  in  its  Pentium  III 
through  the  KNI  instruction  set,  which 
does  pretty  much  the  same  thing. 

By  the  time  ofthe  K6-III  launch  earlier 
this  year,  AMD  had  established  itselfas 
the  only  serious  rival  to  Intel  in  the 
Windows-compatible  processor  market, 
with  National  Semiconductor  selling  the 
other  main  player  -  Cyrix  -  to  Taiwanese 
company  VIA. 

Despite  the  technological  advances, 
however,  life  has  been  far  from  plain 
sailing  for  AMD.  Aside  from  trying  to 
persuade  manufacturers  to  adopt  the 
technology  and  the  public  to  buy 
machines  that  do  not  have  the  Intel 
Inside  logo  on  them,  its  main  problem 
has  been  producing  the  chips  in 
sufficient  quantity  to  meet  demand. 

Recent  financial  results  have  not  been 
good,  with  the  latest  showing  a  net  loss 
of  $1  62m  forthe  second  quarter.  AMD 
says  a  combination  of  production 
problems  and  high  research  and 
development  costs  forthe  Athlon  have 
caused  these  losses,  although  they  were 
not  as  bad  as  some  pundits  predicted. 
This  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  sales 
cannot  have  been  helped  by  the  fact  that 
customers  are  simply  opting  for  Intel  in 


greater  numbers,  aided  by  Intel’s  massive 
marketing  presence. 

However,  AMD  is  planning  a 
marketing  assault  of  its  own  forthe 
Athlon.  The  brand  name  will  be  extended 
to  reflect  the  different  uses 
that  AMD  intends  the  chip  to  have. 

The  600MHz  Athlon  chips  reviewed 
in  this  issue  will  remain  the  CPU  for 
high-performance  consumer  and 
small-business  PCs,  with  the  Athlon 
Professional  catering  for  the  enterprise 
sector  equivalents.  The  Athlon  Select 
name  will  cater  for  budget  machines 
and  the  Athlon  Ultra  will  be  found  inside 
AMD-based  servers  and  high-end 
workstations. 

It’s  going  to  bean  interesting  time  for 
processor  technology.  AMD  is  growing 
increasingly  confident  of  being  able  to 
produce  1  GHz  copper-based  processors 
by  the  end  ofthe  year.  The  company  has 
invested  heavily  in  the  Athlon’s  future, 
including  building  a  $1 .9bn  factory  in 
Dresden  which  opens  later  this  year.  This 
should  help  it  overcome  the  production 
difficulties  that  have  dogged  it  in  the 
past.  Provided  AMD  has  learnt  from  its 
other  mistakes,  the  Athlon  should  prove 
to  be  the  revitalising  force  that  it  needs. 


1481 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


r 


Adas  Meridian  K7 


Atlas  has  chosen  to  house  its 

Athlon  PC  inside  an  impressive 
full-tower  case.  This  is  a  wise  move, 
since  it  provides  expanded  upgrade 
potential  as  well  as  extensive  cooling 
for  the  system  components.  As 
things  stand,  there  are  two  external 
5.25in  bays  free  and  three  internal 
3.5in  bays.  Even  with  all  this 
expansion  potential,  the 
motherboard  is  completely 
unobstructed.  Only  the  CD 
audio  cable  spoils  the 
effect,  being  routed 
across  the  board 
rather  than  around  it. 

The  600MHz  Athlon 
processor  is  housed 
in  the  familiar  MSI 
motherboard.  The  chip 
is  cooled  by  an  active 
heatsink  and  the  power 
supply  fan  that  blows 
across  its  surface. 

There's  a  third  fan 
located  at  the  bottom  of  the  case 
to  ensure  a  steady  flow  of  air  around 
the  system. 

256Mb  of  SDRAM  fills  two  of 
the  three  DIMM  sockets  on  the 
motherboard,  which  should  be  more 
than  enough  memory  to  run  any 
application  well  into  the  future. 

Like  the  Mesh  offering  in  this  test, 
Atlas  has  chosen  the  full 
SoundBlaster  Live!  card  as  the  sound 
solution.  This  card  offers  excellent 
digital  and  wavetable  effects,  and 
has  the  added  advantage  of  digital 
in  and  out  ports  for  mastering  to 
MiniDisc  or  DAT.  A  set  of  Diamond 
Pro  Media  4030  speakers  amplify 
the  signal  from  the  SoundBlaster  - 
a  decent  speaker  set  with  crisp  and 
clear  sound  reproduction. 

However,  you  won’t  be  able  to 
make  use  ofthe  SoundBlaster’s 
surround  sound  capabilities  since 
there  are  only  two  satellites  and  a 
subwoofer  in  the  set.  Another 
pair  of  speakers  can  easily  be  added 
to  rectify  this. 


A  good  monitor  should  be 
paramount  when  buying  a  PC,  and 
the  Sony  Multiscan  400PS  is  a  fine 
example  of  a  1 9in  unit.  Sony 
invented  the  aperture  grille  tube  and 
makes  some  ofthe  best  CRT  displays 
available.  The  400PS  produces  a 
superb  image  with  vivid  and  rich 
colours,  while  the  screen  is  free  from 
reflections.  Since  this  is  a  standard 
Trinitron  display  rather  than  the 


newer  FD  Trinitron  range,  the  screen 
is  not  quite  as  flat  as  the  Natural  Flat 
Taxan  units  from  Panrixand  Mesh, 
but  it  is  a  first-rate  display. 


Driving  the  Sony  monitor  is  an 
Asus  AGP  graphics  card  using  the 
nVidia  RivaTNT2  chipset.  This  is  a 
fast  card  in  both  2D  and  3D 
applications,  with  32Mb  of  memory 
to  help  move  those  large  textures 
around.  It  also  has  composite  and 
S-Video  TV  outputs. 

Yet  again,  IBM  has  proved  to  be 
the  hard  disk  manufacturer  of 
choice.  This  time,  a  22Gb  DeskStar 
EIDE  unit  has  been  fitted.  As  well  as 
a  substantial  capacity,  this  unit 
boasts  a  7200rpm  spindle  speed  and 
GMR  heads.  An  OnStream  DI30  is 
provided  for  hard  disk  backup  and 
security.  The  DI30  is  an  internal  tape 
backup  unit  that  has  a  native 
capacity  of  1  5Gb  and  a  compressed 
capacity  of  up  to  30Gb. 

Directly  above  the  OnStream  drive 
is  a  Hitachi  GD2500  6X  DVD-ROM 
drive.  Even  though  not  much  is  being 
released  on  DVD  apart  from  movies, 
it’s  only  a  matter  of  time  before 
CD-ROMs  are  abandoned,  and  a 
little  future  proofing  is  a  good  thing. 

Lotus  SmartSuite  Millennium  is 
bundled  to  get  your  office 
productivity  off  to  a  flying  start. 

The  Atlas  produced  exactly  the 
same  SYSmark  score  as  the  Mesh  — 
an  impressive  255  -  proving  that 


i . 1 1 


there’s  little 
performance 
difference 
between  these 
systems.  The 
3DMark  test 
turned  in 
Athlon-optimised  scores  of 
5892  and  3974  at  1 024x768  and 
1 280x1 024  respectively,  in  1 6bit 
colour  mode.  Again,  these  scores  are 
impressive,  but  not  as  impressive  as 
those  from  the  Evesham. 


Atlas  has  built  a  very  strong 
system.  Performance  is  good, 
the  system  case  has  masses  of 
expandability,  and  the  build  quality 
is  impressive.  All  the  supporting 
components  are  high-quality,  but 
it  is  the  inclusion  ofthe  30Gb 
OnStream  tape  backup  device 
that  makes  the  Atlas  that  little  bit 
more  special. 


PCW  DETAILS 

Atlas  Athlon  600 

Price  £2,340.82  (£1,999  ex  VAT) 

Supplier  Atlas  0181  532  6515 

www.  atlasplc.  com 

Good  Points  Full -tower  case, 
excellent  backup  device 
Bad  Points  3D  performance 
could  be  better 

Conclusion  A  thoughtfully  built  PC 
with  some  great  components 


Build  quality 

★★★★ 

Performance 

★★★★★ 

Value  for  money 

★★★★ 

Overall 

★★★★ 

1501 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


by  these  days,  but  it’s  still  a  bonus 
to  have  everything  set  up  the  minute 
you  buy  your  PC. 

Filling  the  top  5.25in  drive  bay  is  a 
Panasonic  DVD-ROM  drive  with  6X 
and  32X  performance  for 
DVD  and  CD  media 
respectively.  Below  this 
is  an  Iomega  Zip  100 
drive.  Although 

1 00Mb  isn't  a  huge 
amount  of  space, 
the  Zip  is  still  a 
decent  data 
transport  device  due 
to  its  high  market 
penetration. 

Lotus  SmartSuite  Millennium  is 
the  productivity  bundle,  and 
although  it's  not  as  popular  a 
solution  as  Microsoft  Office,  it's 
still  a  very  capable  package. 

A  Key  Tronic  keyboard  and  a 
Microsoft  Intellimouse  make  up  the 
input  devices,  both  being  quality 
components.  And  rounding  things 
off  is  a  two  year  on-site  warranty, 
adding  piece  of  mind  to  an  already 
impressive  package. 


The  Carrera  name  has  lately 
become  synonymous  with 
cutting  edge  technology  and  the 
Octane  M600  strengthens  its 
position.  Like  all  the  systems  in  this 
group  test,  the  Carrera  is  based  on  a 
600MHz  AMD  Athlon  in  an  MSI 
motherboard.  The  processor  is 
supported  by  256Mb  of  PCI  00 
SDRAM  that  fills  two  of  the  three 
DIMM  slots.  With  this  much  memory, 
you  shouldn’t  have  any  problem 
running  software  for  quite  awhile. 

Inside,  things  are  pretty  tidy,  with 
no  cables  hindering  access  to  the 
motherboard.  Even  the  CD  audio 
cable  has  been  thoughtfully  routed 
around  the  board  to  the  sound  card. 

The  EIDE  controller  on  the 
motherboard  supports  the  UDMA66 
standard,  so  the  18Gb  Western 
Digital  Expert  hard  disk  can  be  used 
to  its  full  potential.  Western  Digital 
licenses  the  GMR  head  technology 
from  IBM,  so  this  drive  shares  the 
same  impressive  data  density  of  the 
IBM  range,  as  well  as  a  7,200rpm 
spindle  speed. 

The  single  AGP  slot  is  filled  by  a 
32Mb  Maxi  Gamer Xentor  graphics 
card.  Based  on  the  nVidia  RivaTNT2 
Ultra  chipset,  this  card  produces  very 
impressive  performance  in  both  2D 
and  3D  applications,  making  it  ideal 
for  both  serious  applications  and 
heavy-d  uty  gam  i  ng. 


The  LG  Studioworks  910SC  isn’t 
the  best  1 9in  monitor  available,  but 
it’s  still  a  fine  example  of  a  shadow 
mask  display.  Even  though  the  screen 
is  more  curved  than  the  aperture 
grille  monitors  in  this  test,  the  focus 
is  clear  and  the  colours  bright. 
Controlling  the  OSD  is  simple  and 
intuitive,  using  the  four  buttons  on 
the  left  of  the  front  fascia,  while  the 
contrast  and  brightness  controls  are 
dealt  with  by  independent  analog 
wheels  under  the  fascia. 

Breaking  with  tradition,  Carrera 
has  opted  for  an  Aureal  Vortex  2 
sound  card  instead  of  a  Creative 
Labs  SoundBlaster  Live!  But  this  is 
no  bad  thing,  as  the  Vortex  2  is  a 
great  card  with  superb  3D  effects  for 
games.  It  also  sports  an  optical 
digital  output  so  you  can  master  to 
MiniDiscor  DAT. 

A  set  of  Altec  Lansing  ACS54 
speakers  complements  the  Vortex 
2,  comprising  four  satellites  and  one 
subwoofer.  This  package  is  aimed 
at  much  the  same  market  as  the 
Creative  4  Point  Surround  speakers, 
but  overall  sound  quality  is  superior. 

The  last  expansion  card  is  a  56l< 
PCI  modem  that’s  coupled  with  a 
year’s  free  Internet  access,  so  the 
system  really  is  Internet-ready 
straight  out  of  the  box.  That  said, 
free  Internet  access  is  easy  to  come 


Performance  proved  to  be 
excellent,  with  the  Carrera  turning 
in  aSYSmarkscore  of 259,  just  one 
point  behind  the  Panrix.  Unlike  the 
Panrix,  however,  3D  performance 
was  superb,  with  3DMark  scores 
of  6506  at  1 024x768  and  4349  at 
1 280  xl  024,  both  in  1 6-bit  colour. 

Although  it’s  not  as  feature- 
packed  as  the  Mesh,  the  Octane 
M600  costs  almost  £300  less  and 
actually  performs  slightly  better. 
Ultimately,  if  you’re  after  cutting 
edge  technology  at  a  bargain  price, 
the  Carrera  is  definitely  worth 
investigating. 

PCW  DETAILS 

Carrera  Octane  M600 
Price  £2, 055. 07  (£  1, 749  ex  VAT) 
Supplier  Carrera  01 81  3072800 

www.  carrera.  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Great  performance, 
excellent  value 

Bad  Points  Average  monitor 
Conclusion  A  value-packed , 
high-performance  PC  that  can  turn 
its  hand  to  anything 


Build  quality 

★★★★★ 

Performance 

★★★★★ 

Value  for  money 

★★★★★ 

Overall 

★★★★★ 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


151 


AMD  ATH 


Evesham  Vale  Athlon  600 


Evesham  has  thought  long  and 
hard  about  how  to  get  the  most 
out  of  the  Athlon  processor  and  this 
configuration  shows  it  off  well. 

Build  quality  is  impressive.  Cables 
have  been  grouped  together  and 
wrapped  in  a  plastic  cover  to  keep 
them  out  of  the  way,  giving  easy 
access  to  expansion  slots,  memory 
slots  and  the  processor,  and  leaving 
room  for  air  to  circulate. 

The  MSI  motherboard  leaves 
plenty  of  room  for  upgrades  with 
three  PCI  slots  free  and  the  two  ISA 
slots  unused.  The  1 28Mb  SDRAM 
module  runs,  in  common  with  all 
the  other  manufacturers  in  this  test, 
at  1 00MHz.  The  coming  months 
should  see  the  adoption  of  memory 
that  will  be  able  to  take  full 
advantage  of  the  200MHz 
Alpha-based  system  bus. 

Removable  storage  is  provided  by 
a  Castlewood  ORB  drive.  This  is  a 
similar  unit  to  the  Iomega Jaz2  drive, 
although  the  capacity  is  slightly 
higher  at  2.2Gb  than  the  2Gb  on 
Iomega’s  unit.  In  the  Orb’s  favour, 
the  cartridge  consists  of  a  single 
disk  platter,  whereas  the Jaz2 
cartridges  have  two.  The  data 
density  is  higher  and  performance 
should  subsequently  be  better. 
Unfortunately,  the  ORB  is  not  a 
widely  adopted  standard  like  the Jaz 
and  Jaz2.  Evesham  has  broken  ranks 
with  the  rest  of  the  pack  and 


installed  a  Maxtor  hard  disk  instead 
of  an  IBM  one.  It’s  still  an  impressive 
drive  although,  with  a  capacity  of 
20Gb,  it  should  be  a  fair  while  before 
you  need  to  upgrade. 

The  final  EIDE  device  is  a 
Panasonic  DVD-ROM  drive.  With  6x 
DVD  performance  and  32x  CD-ROM 
capability,  it  should  make  short  work 
of  software  installs. 

The  sound  from  the  Creative  Labs  4 
Point  Surround  speakers  could  be 
clearer,  but  you  do,  after  all,  get  four 
speakers  and  a  subwoofer.  Having 
said  that,  if  you  are  short  on  space,  a 
pair  of  better  quality  speakers  may 
be  more  prudent. 

The  KeyTronic  keyboard  is 
ergonomically  shaped.  The  bottom 
of  the  keyboard  extends  slightly  to 
provide  a  handy  rest  for  your  hands 
and  the  top  curves  upwards. 
However,  the  keys  are  unusually  stiff, 
which  could  become  wearing. 

The  19inTaxan  Ergovision  975 
monitor  is  a  good  choice,  although  it 
does  have  some  faults.  This  shadow 
mask  unit  is  quite  reflective  but  still 
displays  colours  vividly.  No  dark 
patches  are  evident  and  focus  is 
generally  sharp,  but  it  does  suffer 
slightly  in  the 
bottom 
right 
corner. 

The 
refresh 


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rate  is  respectable  -  85 Hz  at  a 
resolution  of  1 280x1 024,  and  even 
at  1 600x1 200  it  doesn’t  give  up 
displaying  at  72Hz.  A  powered  USB 
hub  forms  part  of  the  base,  allowing 
you  to  daisy  chain  USB  devices. 

A  Diamond  Supra  Express 
V.90  modem  makes  the  Evesham 
Internet-ready  straight  from  the  box. 

We  ran  a  few  extra  tests  on  this 
machine  to  see  how  software 
optimisation  affected  the  Athlon’s 
performance.  Our  3DMark  test  was 
run  with  and  without  optimisation 
for  the  19  new3DNow!  instructions. 
It  had  a  great  effect  on  this  machine, 
increasing  the  score  by  431  points 
at  the  standard  resolution  of 
1 024x768  in  1 6bit  colour,  although 
the  performance  benefit  decreased 
as  we  increased  the  resolution  and 
colour  depth.  The  high  scores 
were  due  not  only  to  the  Athlon’s 
high  clock  speed,  but  to  the  fact 
that  AMD  has  designed  the  chip 
specifically  to  improve  floating-point 
performance,  which  is  crucial  in 
games.  The  excellent  Xentor32 
Ultra  graphics  card,  based  on  the 
nVIDIA  RivaTNT2  Ultra  chipset, 
also  helps.  It  has  motion 
compensation  for  DVD  playback, 
which  works  well,  producing  no 
dropped  frames. 

The  SYSmark  result  was  among 
the  best  we  have  ever  seen,  with 
improvements  across  both  the  office 
productivity  and  content  creation 
parts  of  the  tests. 

Our  pre-release  version  of  the 
Evesham  system  was  occasionally 
prone  to  instability,  but  this  will  be 
fixed  by  the  time  the  machine  is 
available  to  buy. 

PCW  DETAILS 

Evesham 

Price  £1,996.33  (£1,699  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Evesham  Vale  01386769600 

www.  evesham.  com 

Good  Points  Blistering  3D 
performance 

Bad  Points  Monitor  could  be  better 
and  ORB  drive  may  be  undesirable 
Conclusion  A  well  built,  good  value 
machine  for  someone  who  knows  what 
they’re  doing 


Build  quality 

★★★★ 

Performance 

★★★★★ 

Value  for  Money 

★★★★★ 

Overall 

★★★★ 

154 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Mesh  Matrix 


Like  all  the  manufacturers  in  this 
group  test,  Mesh  pulled  out  all 
the  stops  to  show  off  AMD’s  new 
super  chip.  Beating  at  the  heart  of 
the  600D  is,  unsurprisingly,  a 
600MHz  AMD  Athlon  processor. 
The  motherboard  is  the  same  MSI 
model  that  all  these  machines  sport, 
although  this  may  differ  in  the 
production  model.  One  ofthe  three 
DIMM  sockets  is  occupied  by 
1 28Mb  of  PCI  00  SDRAM,  allowing 
a  further  51 2Mb  to  be  added. 

Filling  the  single  AGP  slot  is  a 
32Mb  Matrox  G400  graphics 
adaptor.  This  is  a  great  2D/3D  card 
with  dual  monitor  support.  Unlike 
previous  dual  monitor  graphics 
cards,  the  G400  supports  multiple 
displays  at  different  refresh  rates, 
so  if  your  second  monitor  is  smaller 
than  your  primary  unit,  you  won’t 
have  to  run  your  main  display  at  a 
low  refresh  rate.  The  G400  didn’t 
perform  as  well  as  theTNT2  Ultra 
cards,  but  if  Mesh  had  supplied 
the  G400  Max  the  story  could  have 
been  different. 

Connected  to  the  G400  is  one  of 
the  best  monitors  we  have  seen,  the 
Taxan  Ergovision  980  TC099.  This 
1 9in  unit  is  based  on  Mitsubishi’s 
Natural  Flat  Diamondtron  tube  and 
the  image  quality  is  nothing  short  of 
stunning.  The  focus  is  perfect  across 
the  whole  screen  surface  and 
although  there  was  a  small  colour 
registration  problem,  it  was 
probably  due  to  rough  transit  since 
a  brief  adjustment  in  the  OSD 
rectified  the  situation.  There’s 
also  a  USB  hub  integrated  into 
the  monitor  base  for  easy 
USB  connection. 


Storage  is  handled  by  a  7,200rpm 
IBM  hard  disk  providing  22Gb, 
although  a  bit  of  disk  partitioning 
would  have  made  more  efficient  use 
ofthe  space.  That  said,  this  is  a  fast 
and  capacious  drive  that  should  keep 
almost  anyone  happy  for  some  time 
to  come.  To  supplement  the  hard 
disk,  Mesh  has  installed  one  ofthe 
best  removable  storage  drives  on  the 
market,  the  Panasonic  LF-D1 01 
DVD-RAM.  A  true  multi-purpose 
device,  it  can  read  both  DVD-ROM 
and  CD-ROM  discs  but  its  main 
use  will  be  writing  and  reading 


high  performance  with  a  SYSmark 
score  of  255.  We  received  a  patch 
for  3DMark  with  enhancements  for 
the  Athlon  architecture.  It  did  make 
a  small  difference,  with  the  Mesh 
scoring  5,338  at  1 ,024x768  in 
1 6bit  colour  compared  to  5,262 
without  it. 

The  Mesh  Matrix  600D  is  a  fine 
example  of 
what  can 

fir 


be  done 
with 
AMD’s 
new  chip. 


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A  full  retail  SoundBlaster  Live! 
takes  care  of  sound,  coming 
complete  with  the  digital  connector 
daughter  card.  This  adds  SP/DIF  in 
and  out  ports,  as  well  as  digital  DIN 
in  and  out.  This  makes  it  an  ideal  for 
digital  sound  editing,  since  tracks 
can  be  copied  to  and  from  the  PC 
without  a  loss  of  quality.  Also,  with 
MP3  becoming  popular,  it  allows 
users  to  copy  their  MP3  files  to 
MiniDisc  for  on-the-move  listening. 
Unfortunately,  the  Creative  PC 
Works  4  Point  surround  speakers 
aren’t  the  best  units  around, 
although  they  will  at  least  give  a 
surround  sound  effect. 

The  other  PCI  card  is  a  Diamond 
SupraExpress  V.90  modem. 


DVD-RAM  discs.  These  can  store  up 
to  2.6Gb  on  each  side  -  ideal  for 
transporting  large  files  or 
safeguarding  important  ones.  Since 
the  DVD-RAM  drive  is  a  SCSI  device, 
Mesh  has  installed  an  ISA  Adaptec 
1  520  SCSI  card,  which  is  fast  enough 
to  make  the  most  of  it.  Strangely, 
there’s  also  a  DVD-ROM  drive  in  the 
shape  of  a  Pioneer  DVD-1 13.  Even 
though  the  DVD-RAM  drive  can  read 
every  type  of  media,  Mesh  felt  the 
6x  DVD  and  32x  CD  read  was 
preferable  to  the  lx  DVD  and  20x 
CD  performance  ofthe  RAM  drive. 

Corel  WordPerfect  Office  2000  is 
bundled  with  the  system  and  there’s 
a  one  year  on-site  warranty. 

The  Athlon  lives  up  to  its  predicted 


PCW  DETAILS 

Mesh  Matrix  600D 

Price  £ 2,348.83  (£1,999  ex  VAT) 

Supplier  Mesh  0208  208  4706 

www.  meshplc.  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Superb  monitor  and 
great  peripherals 
Bad  Points  Nome 
Conclusion  An  expertly  built 
machine  with  a  great  monitor. 

A  perfect  example  of  an  Athlon 
workstation 


Build  quality  ★★★★★ 

Performance  ★★★★★ 

Value  for  Money  ★★★★★ 
Overall  ★★★★★ 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


155 


Panrix  Magnum  600 


This  Panrix  machine  looks  like  a 
cross  between  a  server  and  a 
desktop.  The  case  is  excellent.  The 
rear  is  covered  by  a  plastic  flap  that 
is  easily  removed  via  a  single 
thumbscrew.  Once  the  back  cover  is 
off,  the  side  cover  slips  away  easily 
without  removing  any  more  screws. 

The  internal  Zip  drive  and  two 
5.25in  expansion  bays  are  covered 
by  a  double  hinged  door  that  folds 
flush  against  the  side  of  the  system 
case.  The  blanking  plates  for  the  free 
5.25in  expansion  bays  are  easily 
removable  for  system  upgrades. 
Inside  the  case,  it's  obvious  that 


been  better  to  route  the  cable  round 
the  side  of  the  case.  The  rest  of  the 
cables  are  grouped  together  tidily 
enough,  although  not  as  tidily  as 
others  in  this  test.  The  motherboard 
is  the  same  MSI  model  as  the  rest  of 
these  machines,  as  it  was  the  first 
Slot  A  board  available.  Slot  A  shares 
a  similar  form  factor  with  the  Intel 
Slot  1  standard,  but  the  two  are  not 
interchangeable. 

The  two  PS/2  ports  feel  insecure, 
wobbling  as  if  they  will  not  stand  up 
to  much  abuse,  although 
once  the 


Diamond  SupraExpress  V.90  modem. 

The  monitor  is  a  good  choice.  The 
aperture  grille  Mitsubishi  Diamond 
Pro  900u  is  based  on  the  same  1 9in 
Natural  Flat  tube  as  the  Taxan 
supplied  with  the  Mesh  PC.  The 
display  is  excellent,  apart  from  a 
slightly  dark  patch  at  the  bottom 
right  on  our  review  model.  The 
cables  are  sufficiently  recessed  for 
the  monitor  to  be  placed  flush 
against  the  wall.  At  the  rear,  you’ll 
find  USB  ports,  along  with  D-SUB 
and  BNC  connectors.  A  handy 
button  allows  you  to  switch 
between  D-SUB  and  BNC  with 
one  touch.  The  rest  of  the 
controls  are  not  so  user-friendly, 
with  the  menu  system  being  quite 
tricky  to  navigate  although  all  the 
options  you  would  expect  from  a 
high-end  monitor  are  present. 

The  most  disappointing 

aspect  of  this  machine  is  the 
graphics  card.  Panrix  has 
installed  a  Matrox  G400,  but 
only  opted  for  the  1 6Mb  version 
which  appears  somewhat 
outclassed  by  the  32Mb 
competition.  When  tested 
under  3DMark,  the  Panrixjust 
couldn’t  compete  with  the  better 
specified  rival  cards.  However, 
the  SYSmark  score  of  260  was  the 
fastest  on  test. 

A  copy  of  Microsoft  Office  2000 
SBE  adds  a  fair  amount  ofvalue  and 
makes  the  Panrix  a  productive  tool 
from  the  outset. 

On  the  whole,  however,  the  Panrix 
PC  is  a  little  disappointing  compared 
with  the  competition.  There’s 
nothing  intrinsically  wrong  with  this 
system,  but  it  doesn’t  offer  quite  as 
much  as  the  other  units  on  test. 

PCW  DETAILS 

Panrix 

Price  £2,344. 13  (£1,995  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Panrix  0113  244  4958 

www.  panrix.  com 

Good  Points  Good  software  bundle 
Bad  points  Should  have  opted  fora 
better  Matrox  graphics  card 
Conclusion  A  good,  generally  well 
built  machine,  but  Panrix  has  not  used 
the  Athlon  to  its  full  potential 


Build  quality 

★★★★ 

Performance 

★★★★ 

Value  for  Money 

★★★ 

Overall 

★★★★ 

i 


Q 


°  °  ° 

fii  r-i  *-*-  *■  f  f  i_H  I  t  I  Li  t  I  '  ’ 


devices 

are  plugged  in  they 
will  probably  stay 
there.  The  floppy 
and  DVD  drives 
are  well 
out  of 


system  cooling  is  of  paramount 
importance  because  there  are  four 
fans  -  the  usual  fan  in  the  power 
supply,  plus  one  directly  underneath. 
A  third  sits  at  the  base  of  the  front  of 
the  machine  and  the  CPU  has  a 
dedicated  fan  of  its  own.  With  this 
amount  of  air  circulating,  there’s 
little  danger  of  overheating. 

Build  quality  is  generally  good, 

but  is  let  down  slightly  by  poor 
routing.  The  power  cable  for  one  of 
the  fans  is  stretched  from  the  socket 
on  the  far  side  of  the  motherboard 
across  the  processor  itself,  blocking 
the  memory  slots.  It  would  have 


very 

top  of  the  case,  making  it  easy  to 
install  devices  in  the  free  bays.  The 
AOpen  6x  DVD  drive  sports  a  slot 
loading  mechanism  rather  than  a 
tray.  DVD  movies  play  with  no 
dropped  frames,  although  we 
think  the  Matrox  DVD  player 
could  be  more  user-friendly.  The 
SoundBlaster  Live!  Value  is  a  good 
card  but  lacks  digital  ports,  while 
the  Yamaha  YST-M20  speakers  are 
high  quality  but  there’s  no 
subwoofer  or  surround  option. 

The  22Gb  IBM  Deskstar  drive 
makes  another  appearance, 
providing  more  than  enough  space 
to  store  Internet  downloads  via  the 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


PCW  Labs  report 


All  of  these 
results  are 
within  the  margins 
of  error  set  by 
Bapco,  so  the 
difference  between 
the  machines  is  of 
little  consequence. 
This  is  not 
surprising,  given 
that  all  the 


machines  had 
exactly  the  same 
processor  and 
motherboard. 
What  these  results 
do  show,  however, 
is  the  large 
perfomance  boost 
that  the  Athlon 
has  delivered 
across  the  board. 


AMD’s  claim 
that  the  Athlon 
improves  3D 
perfromance  is 
certainly  borne 
out  by  these 
results.  The 
TNT2  Ultra  based 
cards  in  the 
Evesham  and 
Carrera  machines 


have  particularly 
benefited  from  the 
Athlon  processor, 
showing  what  can 
be  achieved  when 
a  good  graphics 
card  is  married 
with  a  fast  chip 
designed  with 
3D  perfomance 
in  mind. 


3DMark  99  Max  1024x768 

0  1000  2000  3000  4000  5000  5500  6000  6500  7000  7500  score 

6551 


Evesham 


Carrera  (Highly  Commended) 
Atlas 


Panrix 


Mesh  (Editor’s  Choice) 


6506 

5892 

5360 

5338 


We  really 

wanted 

to  put  the  Athlon 
through  its  paces, 
so  we  increased 
the  resolution  to 
see  whether  the 
processor  could 
reproduce  the 
same  fast  results  at 
a  higher  setting. 


We  were  not 
disappointed. 
The  results 
demonstrate 
that  these  latest 
machines  can 
certainly  keep 
up  with  the  extra 
demands  posed 
by  this  higher 
display  mode. 


How  we  did  the  tests 


•  SYSmark  measures  the  time  it  takes  the 
PC  to  perform  a  variety  of  tasks  in  14  common 
office  and  content  creation  applications. 

Each  test  is  run  three  times  to  ensure  consistent 
results.  The  applications  are: 

Office  productivity:  Corel  Draw  8,  Microsoft 
Excel  97,  Dragon  Systems  NaturallySpeaking  2.02,  Netscape 
Communicator. 05  Standard  Edition,  Caere  OmniPage  Pro  8.0, 
Corel  Paradox  8,  Microsoft  PowerPoint  97,  Word  97. 

Content  creation:  MetaCreations  Bryce  2,  Avid  Elastic  Reality 
3.1,  Macromedia  Extreme  3D  2,  Adobe  Photoshop  4.01,  Adobe 
Premiere 4.2, XingTechnologyXingMPEG  Encoder  2.1 . 

Performance  depends  on  processor  speed,  RAM,  graphics 
card  and  disk  I/O.  As  the  software  packages  are  widely  available, 
the  scores  reflect  how  the  PC  will  perform  in  a  real-world  situation. 

•  3DMark99  Max  is  an  instruction  set-optimised  version  of 
3DMark99  from  Futuremark  Corporation,  which  tests  the 


machines’  3D  capabilities.  When  applicable,  the  suite  oftests 
will  draw  upon  AMD’s  3DNow!  or  Intel’s  KNI  instruction 
sets.  A  Real  World  DirectX  6.1  3D  games  engine  is  used  to 
produce  one  result  from  a  balanced  testing  methodology 
that  includes  image  quality,  rendering  speed,  CPU  capability 
and,  depending  on  hardware  support,  a  test  for  embossed 
bump-mapping. 

All  3DMark99  Max  benchtests  are  performed  at  a  resolution 
of  1 024x768  in  1 6bit  colour  depth,  with  the  test  suites  set  to 
loop  three  times.  For  this  particular  group  test  we  also  ran 
an  additional  benchtest  at  a  resolution  of  1 280x1 024  in 
1 6bit  colour.  As  with  the  SYSmark  results,  the  higher  the  score, 
the  better  the  result.  However,  due  to  the  implementation 
of  instruction  set  optimisation,  no  comparison  can  be 
made  between  the  results  from  the  original  3DMark99  and 
the  Max  version. 

More  details  at  www.bapco.com  and  www.3dmark.com 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


165 


Table  of 
features 


Manufacturer 

Atlas 

Carrera 

EveshamVale 

MESH 

PANRIX 

Model  Name 

Meridian  K7-600 

Octane  M600 

Athlon  600 

Matrix  600D 

Magnum  600 

Price  (exc  VAT) 

£1,999 

£1,749 

£1,699 

£1,999 

£1,995 

Price  (inc  VAT) 

£2,348.83 

£2,055.08 

£1,996.33 

£2,348.83 

£2,344.13 

Telephone 

07000  285  275 

0181  307  2800 

01386  769600 

0181  208  4706 

0113  244  4958 

URL 

www.atlasplc.com 

www.carrera.co.uk 

www.evesham.com 

www.meshplc.co.uk 

www.panrix.com 

Hardware  Specs 

Processor 

AMD  Athlon  600  MHz 

AMD  Athlon  600MHz 

AMD  Athlon  600MHz 

AMD  Athlon  600MHz 

AMD  Athlon  600MHz 

RAM/type 

256Mb/SDRAM 

256Mb/SDRAM 

128Mb/SDRAM 

128Mb/SDRAM  PCI  00 

128MB/SDRAM 

Full  RAM  slots/spare  RAM  slots 

2/1 

2/3 

1/2 

1/2 

1/3 

Max  memory  in  this  configuration 

512Mb 

512Mb 

640Mb 

640Mb 

640Mb 

Max  memory  supported 

768Mb 

768Mb 

768Mb 

768Mb 

768Mb 

Hard  disk  manufacturer  +  model 

IBM  Deskstar 

W  D  Expert 

Maxtor  5120 

IBM  Deskstar 

IBM  Deskstar 

Hard  disk  size/interface 

22Gb/EIDE 

18Gb/EIDE 

20Gb/EIDE 

22Gb/EIDE 

22Gb/EIDE 

Storage  drive  model  +  manufacturer 

ADR  Onstream 

Iomega  Zip 

Castlewood  ORB 

Panasonic  LF-D1 01 E 

Iomega  Zip 

Size  of  storage  drive  media 

30Gb 

100Mb 

2.2Gb 

2.6Gb  single/5.2Gb  double 

100Mb 

Storage  drive  interface 

EIDE 

EIDE 

EIDE 

SCSI 

EIDE 

Motherboard  Components 

Motherboard  manufacturer 

MSI 

MSI 

MSI 

MSI 

MSI 

L2  cache 

51 2K 

51 2K 

512K 

512K 

51 2K 

Expansion  and  I/O 

No  of  3.5/5.25in  bays 

5/4 

3/4 

3/3 

2/3 

1/3 

No  of  free  3.5/5.25in  bays 

3/2 

1/2 

1/1 

3/1 

0/2 

No  of  PCI/ISA/shared  slots 

5/2/1 

4/1/1 

5/2/1 

3/2/1 

5/2/1 

No  of  free  PCI/ISA/shared  slots 

3/2/1 

2/1/1 

3/2/1 

1/2/0 

2/2/1 

No  of  USB/serial/parallel/ PS2 

2/2/1/2 

2/2/1/2 

2/2/1/2 

2/2/1/2 

2/1/1/2 

Multimedia 

CD-ROM  manufacturer  +  model 

Hitachi  GD2500 

Panasonic  8583B 

Panasonic  SR-8584 

Pioneer  DVD-1 1 3 

AOpen  DVD  9632 

CD-ROM  speed/interface 

6x  DVD;  24xCD/EIDE 

6x  DVD;  32x  CD/EIDE 

6x  DVD;  32x  CD/EIDE 

6x  DVD;  32x  CD/EIDE 

6x  DVD;  32x  CD/EIDE 

Sound  card  manufacturer 

Creative 

Aureal 

Creative 

Creative 

Creative 

Sound  card  model 

SoundBlaster  Live! 

Vortex  2 

SoundBlaster  Live!  Value 

SoundBlaster  Live! 

SoundBlaster  Live!  Value 

Speakers  manufacturer  +  model 

Diamond  Pro  Media  4030 

Altec  Lansig  AC554 

PC  Works  4  Point  Surround  PC  Works  4  Point  Surround 

Yamaha  M20 

Graphics  card  manufacturer  +  model 

Asus  V3800 

Xentor  32  Ultra 

Xentor32  Ultra 

Matrox  G400 

Matrox  G400 

Chipset 

Nvidia  RivaTNT2 

Nvidia  RivaTNT2  Ultra 

Nvidia  Riva  TNT2  Ultra 

MGAG400 

MGAG400 

RAM/max  RAM/type 

32Mb/32Mb/SDRAM 

32Mb/32Mb/SDRAM 

32Mb/32Mb/  SDRAM 

32Mb/32Mb/SDRAM 

1 6Mb/1 6Mb/SGRAM 

Graphics  card  interface 

AGP 

AGP 

AGP 

AGP 

AGP 

Monitor  manufacturer  +  model 

Sony  Multiscan  400PS 

LG  Studioworks  91 0SC 

Taxan  Ergovision  975 

Taxan  Ergovision  980 

Mitsubishi  Diamond  900u 

Monitor  size/max  viewable  diagonal 

19in/18in 

19in/18in 

19in/18in 

19in/18in 

19in/18in 

Max  refresh  rate  at  1 024x768 

85Hz 

120Hz 

117Hz 

133Hz 

90Hz 

Max  refresh  rate  at  1 280x1,024 

85Hz 

85Hz 

88Hz 

100Hz 

85Hz 

Max  refresh  rate  at  1 600x1,200 

75Hz 

75Hz 

75Hz 

85Hz 

75Hz 

Other  Information 

Modem  manufacturer  +  model 

Accord  56K 

E-Tech  56K 

Diamond  Supra  Express  56i  Diamond  Supra  Express  56i  Diamond  Supra  Express  56i 

Highest  supported  modem  standard 

V.90 

V.90 

V.90 

V.90 

V.90 

Misc  hardware 

None 

Headset 

none 

Adaptec  1 520  SCSI  Controller 

none 

Bundled  software 

Lotus  SmartSuite  Millennium  Lotus  SmartSuite  Millennium 

none 

WordPerfect  Office  2000 

MS  Office  2000 

Standard  warranty 

1  year  on-site 

2  years  on-site 

2  years  on-site 

1  year  on-site  UK  only 

1  year  on-site 

Warranty  options 

3  years  on-site 

3  years  on-site 

3  years  on-site 

3  years  on-site 

3  years  on-site 

Technical  support  tel  no 

07000  285275 

0181  307  2830 

0800  496  4636 

0181  208  4795 

0113  244  4948 

Technical  support  hours 

Mon-Fri  9am-5.30  pm 

Mon-Fri  9am-6pm 

Mon-Sat  9am-5.30pm 

Mon-Fri  9am-6pm 

Mon-Fri  9.30-5.30 

Sat  10-4 

•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


AMD  ATH 


Editor’s  Choice 


It  wasn’t  easy  picking  a  winner, 
since  we’d  have  been  happy 
with  any  of  the  systems 
supplied.  All  the  manufacturers 
pulled  out  all  the  stops  to  produce 
cutting  edge  machines  based  on 
AMD’s  new  wonder-chip.  And  if 
this  test  has  proved  anything,  it’s 
that  the  AMD  Athlon  is  going  to 
be  a  force  to  be  reckoned  with.  It’s 
a  faster  CPU  than  Intel’s  600MHz 
Pentium  III  and  it  costs  less. 

Of  course,  as  with  all 
technological  advances,  the  extra 
features  sported  by  the  Athlon 
are  only  of  any  use  if  software 
developers  make  use  ofthem. 
Unfortunately,  there’s  no  software 
that  makes  use  ofthe  Athlon’s 
third  FPU  as  yet,  but  when 
optimised  code  does  start  to 
appear,  we  should  see  even  better 
performance  from  this  chip. 

It  was  refreshing  to  see  all  the 
manufacturers  in  this  test 


◄The  Mesh 
Matrix  600D, 

WITH  ITS  NEAR¬ 
FLAWLESS  MONITOR, 
MAKES  THE  TOP  OF 
THE  CROP 


simplest  of 
procedures.  And 
ifthe  massive 
22Gb  IBM  hard 
disk  isn’t  enough 
for  you,  there’s  a 
DVD-RAM  drive 
fitted  for  writing 


to  5.2Gb  removable  optical  discs. 

Mesh  has  thought  long  and  hard 
about  this  machine  and  come  up 
trumps.  If  you’re  looking  for  the  ultimate 
AMD  Athlon-based  system,  this  is  it. 


■v-The  battle  for  our  Highly 
Commended  award  was  closely 
fought  between  Carrera  and  Evesham. 
Both  machines  offered  superb  value  for 
money  and  impressive  performance. 
Ultimately,  though,  the  extra  memory 
and  office  suite  supplied  with  the 

Carrera  Octane  M600just  about 
swung  the  balance  in  its  favour. 
Although  the  Octane  isn’t  as  fully 
featured  as  the  Mesh  Matrix  600D, 
it’s  still  a  great  system.  With 
256Mb  of  RAM  supporting 
the  CPU,  you  won’t  need  to 
upgrade  fora  longtime. 

Add  to  this  the  excellent  Maxi 
Gamer Xentor  graphics  card, 
and  you  have  incredibly  fast  2D 
and  3D  graphical  performance. 

Carrera  hasn’t  pushed  the  boat  out 
when  it  comes  to  its  monitor,  but  the  LG 
Studioworks  91 OSC  is  still  a  fine  1 9in 
display  and  its  inclusion  has  helped  keep 
the  cost  ofthe  system  down.  At  just  over 
£2,000  including  VAT,  the  Carrera 
Octane  M600  is  a  great  buy  and  well 
worth  a  close  look. 


surround  the  new  CPU  with  high-quality 
supporting  components,  and  build 
quality  across  the  board  was  very 
impressive.  Few  compromises  were  made 
by  any  ofthe  vendors  and  the  prices 
weren’t  as  high  as  we’d  expected.  If 
you’re  happy  to  forsake  the  Intel  Inside 
logo  on  your  PC,  an  Athlon-based 
system  could  be  for  you. 


Editor’s  Choice  goes  to  the  Mesh 
Matrix  600D.  Mesh  put  together  a  truly 
staggering  system  with  just  about  every 
base  covered.  The Taxan  Ergovision  980 
monitor  is  superb,  while  the  32Mb 
Matrox  Millennium  G400  graphics  card 
offered  the  option  of  adding  a  second 
display.  The  build  quality  is  excellent,  so 
upgrading  will  be  the 


◄The  Carrera  is 

STILL  A  GREAT  BUY 
WITH  FANTASTIC 
GRAPHICS 
CAPABILITIES 


168 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


NKJ 


172 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Twelve  of  the  best  photo-capable  printers,  from  budget 
to  high-end,  strike  a  pose  for  our  team  of  testers. 


If  your  inkjet  printer  is  more 
than  a  couple  of  years  old,  it 

could  be  worthwhile  upgrading. 
While  the  twelve  printers  we  have 
included  in  this  group  test  still  rely  on 
tried  and  tested  thermal  or  piezo-electric 
heads,  the  technology  behind  them  has 
moved  on  in  leaps  and  bounds. 

Not  only  are  modern  printers  faster 
than  ever  before,  but  they  also  place 
much  finer  drops  of  ink  on  the  page, 
which  results  in  far  more  realistic 
photo  reproduction.  To  prove  the 
point,  Lexmark  and  Epson  have  both 
sponsored  photography  exhibitions 
in  recent  years  in  which  the  exhibits 
were  produced  on  their  own  printers. 
Indeed,  Lexmark’s  latest  line  is  endorsed 
by  David  Bailey. 


But  it’s  not  only  inkdrop  sizes  that 
are  shrinking  —  prices  are  getting 
smaller  too,  and  now  it’s  easy  to  find 
yourself  a  photo-capable  printer  for 
around  £1  50.  Here,  we  take  an  in-depth 
look  at  a  dozen  of  the  latest  to  hit  the 
shelves  in  the  budget,  photo  printing 
and  office  printing  markets,  running 
them  through  a  variety  of  tests  to 
discover  which  is  the  best  for  you. 

Ratings _ 

Highly  recommended 
★★★★  Great  buy 
"k'k'k  Good  buy 
★★  Shop  around 
^  Not  recommended 


Contents 

174 

Budget  printers: 

Canon  BJC-1 000 

Epson  Stylus  Color  440 

Hewlett-Packard  DeskJet  61 0C 

176 

Lexmark  Z1 1 

176 

Small  business  printers: 

Canon  BJC-6000 

Epson  Stylus  Color  900 

178 

Hewlett-Packard  895CXi 

Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 

178 

Photo  printers: 

Canon  BJC-7100 

180 

Epson  Stylus  Photo  750 

Hewlett-Packard  DeskJet  880C 

Lexmark  Z51 

182 

Photo  samples 

183 

CorelDraw samples/  text  samples 

184 

Test  results  /  How  we  did  the  tests 

186 

Table  of  features 

188 

Reaction  to  sunlight 

188 

Running  costs 

190 

Editors  Choice 

•  Reviews:  Nik  Rawlinson 

•  Testing:  David  Eade,  Matthew  Howard 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  •  m 


\ 


Canon  BJC-1000 


The  BJC-1000  holds  only  one  CMY 
cartridge,  and  the  black  cartridge  is 
an  optional  extra,  so  to  get  a  true 
measurement  of  how  this  printer 
performs  in  its  pure  ‘vanilla’ 
configuration,  we  tested  its  text 
output  using  composite 
i  black.  Although 

there  was  a  lot 
of  feathering 
at  standard 
resolution  on 
photocopy  paper, 
t  it  looked  as 

though  we 
had  used 
a  black 
cartridge; 
and  when 


we  switched  to  inkjet  paper,  the 
characters  were  crisp  and  dark. 

The  BJC-1 000  won’t  clutter  your  desk, 
but  you  will  have  to  clear  a  space  for  the 
print-outs  —  there  is  no  output  tray, 
so  they  arrive  on  the  desk.  Installation 
started  off  well,  but  the  routine  refused 
to  recognise  that  we  were  using  the 
correct  installation  CD.  Once  we  had 
convinced  it  that  we  were,  set-up 
continued.  The  driver  is  easy  to  use: 
you  select  the  type  of  document  being 
printed,  and  it  will  change  the  cartridge 
and  media  information  itself.  This  can 
be  fine-tuned  using  drop-down  menus. 
Colours  were  vivid  on  Canon’s  inkjet 
paper,  but  on  photo  paper  the 
photograph  was  rather  grainy.  That 
said,  the  photo’s  fades  were  smooth, 


colours  didn’t  run  into  each 
other  and  skin  tones  were  good, 
but  on  photocopy  paper  the  Best 
quality  composite  black  text  was 
highly  feathered. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★ 

Price  £104. 58  (£89  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Canon  0121  666  6262 

www.  canon,  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Good  colours  on  inkjet 
paper 

Bad  Points  Highly  feathered  text  on 
photocopy  paper 

Conclusion  The  lack  of  a  black 
cartridge  was  disappointing 


Epson  Stylus  Color  440 


Computer 

WORLD 


Installing  this  two-cartridge  printer 

from  the  driver  CD  was  simple.  The 
comprehensive  driver  gave  easy  access 
to  head  alignment  and  nozzle  cleaning 
from  the  software.  It  lets  you  select 
paper  types  using  drop-down  menus, 
and  it  will  change  the  quality  settings 
available.  Reduction  and  enlargement 
of  between  1 0  per  cent 
and  400  percent 
is  possible. 

Best  and 
Standard 
quality  text 
on  photocopy 
paper  was  too 
feathered  to 
send  out  as 
a  business 


letter.  On  inkjet  paper,  though,  the  440 
really  came  through.  Text  was  crisp  and 
dark,  with  even  4pt  text  being  easily 
legible.  We  were  impressed  with  its 
photo  quality  output  on  Epson’s  own 
photo  paper.  But  although  colours 
were  vivid,  the  output  was  a  little 
grainy.  On  the  positive  side,  skin  tones 
were  realistic  and  fades  were  smooth 
and  uniform,  and  our  business 
graphics  looked  great  on  inkjet  paper, 
easily  rivalling  some  of  the  business 
printers  in  this  group  test,  and  we 
would  not  have  been  shy  to  use 
photocopy  paper  to  print  them,  either, 
as  colours  remained  bright  and  of 
uniform  density.  The  440  is  not  the 
fastest  kid  on  the  block,  but  when 
printing  text  it  beats  everything  seen 


here  from  Canon.  When 
printing  the  CorelDraw  business 
graphics  it  also  beats  HP’s  budget 
offering  [below],  shaving  almost  five 
minutes  off  the  job  completion  time. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

Price  £99.01  (£84.26  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Epson  0800  220546 

www.epson.co.uk 

Good  Points  Excellent  inkjet  paper 
peformance 

Bad  Points  Text  feathering  on 
photocopy  paper  in  Best  quality 
Conclusion  Our  budget  pick  of  the 
bunch 


A 


HP  DeskJet  610C 


HP  printers  are  always  a  dream  to 

set  up,  and  this  entry-level 
replacement  for  the  DeskJet  420C  is  no 
exception.  A  Getting  Started  poster 
showed  us  exactly  how  to  install  the 
cables,  drivers  and  cartridges.  The 
61 0C  is  a  two-cartridge  printer  that 
even  has  support  for  the  euro  symbol 
under  DOS.  The  driver  is  easy  to  use, 
with  drop-down 
menus  for 
paper  size 
and  type, 
and  selection 
buttons  with 
illustrative 
icons  for 
selecting  the 
print  quality. 


Printer  services  such  as  alignment  and 
head  cleaning  can  also  be  found  in  the 
driver,  and  the  front  loading  and 
catching  input  and  output  paper  trays 
hold  1 00  and  50  pages  respectively.  In 
common  with  the  other  HP  devices 
tested  here,  the  61  OC’s  paper  path  is 
as  far  from  straight  as  you  can  get. 
Standard  quality  text  on  photocopy 
paperwas  excellent.  Feathering  was 
minimal,  and  in  a  business  environment 
we  would  have  had  no  hesitation  in 
sending  out  our  print.  Even  the  draft 
text  impressed,  although  in  some  places 
larger  fonts  suffered  from  slight 
alignment  problems.  The  inkjet  paper 
Best  quality  colours  of  our  CorelDraw 
test  were  not  as  good  as  those 
produced  by  the  Epson  440  and  we 


were  very  disappointed  with  the 
grainy,  dark  photo  that  suffered 
badly  at  the  hands  of  the  61  OC’s 
relatively  low  600x600  resolution.  Even 
PhotoREt  couldn’t  save  it. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £79  (£67.23  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Hewlett-Packard 
0990  474747  p.com 
Good  Points  Euro  support  under 
DOS.  Good  text  output 
Bad  Points  Poor-quality  photo 
reproduction 

Conclusion  I  fall  you  want  to  print  is 
text,  this  is  a  good  choice 


1141 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


r  Lexmark  Z11 

_ J 

The  Z11  squeezes  1  200x1 200  dots 
into  every  square  inch.  It’s  easy  to 
install  and  its  driver  is  simple  to  use: 

paper  sizes  are  represented  by 
,  A  icons,  and  a  series  of  selection 
l  buttons  specify  paper  types. 
■  Ink  levels  are  displayed 

on-screen.  It  printed 
our  business  letter  in 
composite  black, 
as  it  came  with  a 
colour  cartridge 
only,  and  the  output 
suffered  from 
multi-coloured 
feathering  at 
draft  and 
standard 
resolutions, 


even  on  inkjet  paper.  Feathering  was 
particularly  bad  at  standard  resolution 
on  photocopy  paper.  This  problem  was 
eliminated  when  switching  to  Best 
quality  and  using  inkjet  paper,  but  on 
all  occasions  it  was  unable  to  print  a 
greyscale  signature  at  the  foot  of  the 
letter  without  shading  the  area  with 
cyan  spots.  On  inkjet  paper,  our 
business  graphics  were  handled  well. 
Graduated  fades  were  only  slightly 
stepped,  and  solid  blocks  of  colour 
were  well  reproduced.  At  Best  quality 
and  on  photo  paper  the  A4  photograph 
was  fairly  good:  banded,  but  impressive 
considering  the  price.  In  terms  of 
speed,  the  Z1 1  performed  on  a  par 
with  Canon's  BJC-1 000,  but  it  was  well 
beaten  by  HP's  61 0C  and  the  Epson 


Canon  BJC-6000 


Installation  of  the  BJC-6000  involved 
navigating  a  confusing  series  of  CD 
subdirectories,  but  the  fact  that  each  of 
the  printer's  four  base  colours  (CMYK) 
has  its  own  individually  replaceable 
inkwell  is  a  welcome  feature.  Advanced 
driver  options  let  you  choose  print 
quality,  CMYK  levels,  colour  intensity 
and  four  levels  of 


technology  to  vary  not  only  the  colour 
but  also  the  size  of  each  dot  laid  down 
on  the  page.  Canon  claims  that  this 
produces  deeper  colours,  more  subtle 
shadows  and  less  grainy  images,  and 
to  an  extent,  it  paid  off.  We  were 
impressed  by  the  quality  of  the  photo, 
but  the  individual  drops  of  ink  were 
nonetheless  evident.  On  Canon's 
inkjet  paper  the  Co  re  I  Draw  graphics 
reproduced  well  at  Best  quality.  Colours 
were  vibrant,  and  graduated  fades 
were  fairly  smooth  with  only  minimal 
stepping.  Best,  Standard  and  even 
Draft  quality  text  on  photocopy  paper 
was  excellent  —  dark  and  not  at  all 
feathered.  While  the  BJC-6000 
produced  Standard  quality  text  pages 
at  about  the  same  speed  as  the  Epson 


440  when  printing  text  at  Best 
quality.  The  440  completed  the 
high-quality  business  graphics  in 
around  a  third  of  the  Z1 1  's  time. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★ 

Price  £1 17.50  (£100 ex  VAT) 
Contact  Lexmark  0 1 628  481500 

www.  I  exmark.  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Ink  level  monitor  in 
driver 

Bad  Points  Difficulty  printing 
greyscale  bitmap 

Conclusion  1200x  1 200dpi  sounds 
good,  but  the  Z1 1  didn’t  live  up  to  our 
expectations 


900,  it  was  almost  1 0  times 
slower  at  Best  quality.  It  was  also 
around  three  times  slower  than  the 
HP  DeskJet  895Cxi  at  high-quality 
business  graphics  and  photo  printing. 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★★ 

Price  £233.83  (£199  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Canon  0121  666  6262 

www.  canon,  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Good  business  graphics. 
Excellent  text  on  photocopy  paper. 
Individually  replaceable  inkwells 

Bad  Points  Slow 
Conclusion  A  competent  printer, 
let  down  by  its  ponderous  approach 


Epson  Stylus  Color  900 


The  Stylus  Color  900  is  Epson's 
high-end  business  offering.  For 
networked  users,  the  900N  includes  a 
1 00 Base  Tx  Ethernet  interface.  There 
are  drivers  for  iMac  and  G3  as  well  as 
Windows,  but  nothing  for  DOS  users, 
unfortunately.  As  well  as  the  usual 
paper  size  and  type  settings,  the  driver 
lets  you  add  watermarks  along  the  lines 
of ‘confidential’  and  ‘draft’, 
reduce  and 

enlarge  on  a  1 0 
per  cent  - 
400  percent 
scale,  and  use 
PhotoEnhance3 
to  alter  pictures 
or  give  them  a 
sepia  tone. 


While  Lexmark  claims  to  have  the 
world’s  highest-resolution  printer, 
Epson  claims  the  900  to  have  the 
world’s  smallest  drop  size  at  just  3 
picolitres,  and  its  1 440x720  top 
resolution  is  enhanced  by  Variable- 
Sized  Droplet  Technology  which  allows 
the  printer  to  use  any  one  of  six  drop 
sizes  to  improve  output.  Our  photo, 
although  slightly  banded,  benefited 
from  this,  with  very  fine  print  and 
almost  no  graininess.  Clouds  that 
should  have  come  out  white  appeared 
a  little  pink,  but  skin  tones  were 
excellent,  colours  vivid  and  fades 
exceptionally  smooth.  Black  text  on 
photocopy  paper  in  both  Standard  and 
Draft  mode  was  a  little  feathered,  but 
upping  the  quality  to  Best  and  using 


inkjet  paper  solved  this.  The 
900  was  fairly  fast,  too:  printing 
text  at  this  resolution,  it  was  beaten 
only  by  H  P’s  DeskJets  895CXi  and 
880C,  and  it  was  the  fastest  of  the  lot 
for  photos  and  business  graphics. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £351.33  (£299  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Epson  0800  220546 

www.  epson.  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Fast  business  graphics 
and  photos 

Bad  Points  Slight  banding  on  photo. 
Conclusion  An  impressive 
performance 


i m 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


HP  DeskJet  895CXi 


I  Computed 

WORLD 


Installation  of  the  895CXi  is  a  dream. 
The  CD  auto-runs  and  installation  is 
complete  with  just  a  single  click  of  the 
mouse.  The  driver  has  selection 
buttons  for  output  quality  and  drop¬ 
down  menus  for  paper  size  and  type. 
Head  alignment  and  cleaning  is  easily 
accessed 
through 
the  printer 
services  tab  or 
the  desktop 
toolbox. 

The  895CXi 
incorporates 
HP’s 

^  Photo REt 
*  technology 
for  improved 


picture  handling,  and  this  paid  off  when 
it  came  to  printing  our  photo.  On  H  P’s 
photo  paper  and  at  Best  quality, 
banding  was  very  difficult  to  spot,  and 
we  had  to  look  closely  to  see  any  at  all. 
Skin  tones  were  excellent,  and  the 
colours  of  our  images  overall  were  hard 
to  fault.  HP  printers  excel  when  it 
comes  to  printing  black  text  on 
photocopy  paper.  At  standard  quality 
we  could  see  no  feathering,  and  even 
text  as  small  as  4pt  was  clearly  legible. 
We  also  noted  that  while  the  895CXi 
failed  to  draw  a  white  hairline  through 
a  block  of  solid  black  ink  when  set  to 
Best  quality  and  using  HP’s  own  inkjet 
paper,  it  succeeded  when  we  switched 
to  photocopy  paper.  It  also  excelled 
when  it  came  to  handling  Best  quality 


text  output,  producing  five 
pages  in  just  2min  37sec. 

Although  beaten  by  the  Epson 
900,  it  came  a  close  runner-up  in 
printing  the  A4  photo  at  Best  quality. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

Price  £229  (£194.89  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Hewlett-Packard 
0990  474747  hp.  com 

Good  Points  Fast.  Good  business 
graphics.  Excellent  text  on  photocopy 
paper 

Bad  Points  None  to  speak  of 
Conclusion  A  first- rate  business 
printer 


Xerox  Docuprint  C15 


The  CIS’s  installation  procedure 

is  rather  fiddly  —  the  user  has  to 
navigate  a  series  of  directories  that  had 
even  us  confused  the  first  time  around. 
The  driver  is  quite  basic ,  consisting  of 
only  one  page  and  an  ‘about’  tab.  There 
are  the  usual  drop-down  quality  and 
media  selection  menus,  but  no  cartridge 
utilities.  Like  the 
Lexmark  Z1 1,  the 
Cl  5  boasts  an 
impressive  1 200x 
1 200dpi.  Even  so, 
♦  '  we  were  very 


disappointed 
with  the 
quality  of 
the  photo 

*  it  produced. 


L 

On  photo  paper  at  the  highest  resolution 
it  was  grainy  and  a  little  banded,  and 
blurred  in  some  places.  Where  there 
were  sharp  changes  of  colour,  a  visible 
ridge  appeared.  Standard  quality  text  on 
photocopy  paper  was  fairly  good,  with 
no  feathering.  Characters  were  crisp  and 
dark,  and  text  as  small  as  4pt  was  easily 
legible.  Business  graphics  were  also 
handled  well.  Graduated  fades  were 
smooth,  and  solid  colour  blocks  had 
accurate  tones.  Our  black  hairline  came 
out  red,  though,  showing  that  this 
printer  had  opted  for  composite  black 
rather  than  using  its  black  cartridge. 

We  were  fairly  impressed  when  it  came 
to  speed.  The  Cl  5  beat  everything  in  its 
category  apart  from  HP’s  895CXi, 
dropping  five  pages  of  high-quality 


black  text  in  3min  20sec.  It  did 
less  well,  though,  when  it  came  ^ 
to  business  graphics  and  the 
photo,  managing  to  beat  only  the 
Canon  BJC-6000  on  both  counts. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★ 

Price  £257.33  (£2 19  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Xerox  0800  787787 

www.xerox.com 

Good  Points  Crisp  text  on  photocopy 
paper 

Bad  Points  Poor  photo  printing 
Conclusion  Xerox  has  a  good 
reputation  that  this  printer  does  not 
enhance 


SMAJ-.L 

B0S\NEsS 


Canon  BJC-7100 


The  BJC-7100  is  the  first  seven 
colour  printer,  sporting  CMY,  light 
CMY  and  black  inks.  The  driver  is 
comprehensive  and  easy  to  use.  Scaling 
is  possible  on  a  range  starting  at  1 0  per 
cent  and  topping  off  at  400  per  cent, 
and  the  features  tab  includes  options 
for  applying 

watermarks  to  the 
finished  page. 
The  71 00 
incorporates 
Canon’s  P-POP 
(Plain  Paper 
Optimised  Printing) 
technology,  so  we 
were  keen  to 
find  out  how 
it  would 


i 


perform  on  photocopy  paper:  we  can 
report  that  it  did  very  well  in  our  tests. 
Standard  quality  black  text  was  clean, 
sharp,  dense  and  not  at  all  feathered.  In 
draft  mode  it  experienced  some 
alignment  problems,  but  4pt  text 
remained  clearly  legible.  Business 
graphics  reproduced  particularly  well 
on  photocopy  paper,  and  although 
colours  were  brighter  on  inkjet  paper, 
we  didn’t  really  feel  that  it  was  worth 
the  extra  expense  with  such  good 
photocopy  paper  results.  However,  in 
every  instance  the  7100  was  by  far  the 
slowest  printer  in  this  category,  taking 
over  half  an  hour  to  print  just  five  high- 
quality  pages  of  text.  Even  reducing  the 
quality  setting  to  Standard  only  shaved 
off  a  paltry  1 0min  from  the  job 


completion  time.  While  the 
printer  did  well  to  output  the 
Standard  quality  Corel  Draw  business 
graphics  in  a  fraction  under  2min,  we 
had  to  wait  over  9min  when  upping  the 
quality  to  Best. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★ 

Price  £292. 58  (£249  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Canon  0121  666  6262 

www.  canon,  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Good  business  graphics, 
especially  on  photocopy  paper 
Bad  Points  Let  down  by  its  speed 
Conclusion  We’d  be  tempted  if  it  was 
a  bit  quicker 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


NKJ 


Epson  Stylus  Photo  750 


I  Compute 

^  WORL 


The  750  is  very  easy  to  set  up, 

requiring  only  a  single  reboot  and  a 
bit  of  patience  while  it  goes  through 
a  head-cleaning  process.  The  colour 
cartridge  is  a  five-colour 
unit  (CMY,  half  cyan,  half 
magenta.)  The  driver  uses 
drop-down  menus  to 
select  paper 
types,  and 
your 
selection 
will 

determine 
the  quality 
options 
open  to 
you. 

It  also 


includes  options  for  photo 
enhancement,  image  scaling  and  1 80 
degree  rotation.  We  were  not 
particularly  impressed  with  the  quality 
of  Standard  black  text  on  photocopy 
paper,  as  feathering  was  clearly 
evident.  At  Best  quality  and  on  photo 
paper,  the  results  of  our  photo  printing 
test  were  excellent.  Skin  tones  were 
realistic,  there  was  no  evidence  of 
banding  or  graininess,  and  transitions 
from  one  shade  to  another  were 
smooth.  In  short,  we  were  unable  to 
find  a  fault.  We  have  criticised  Epson 
printers  in  the  past  for  being  slow,  but 
not  this  time.  Five  pages  of  Best  quality 
text  arrived  in  a  tenth  of  the  time  taken 
by  Canon’s  ponderous  71 00,  and  the 
only  printer  in  this  category  to  beat  it  in 


the  photo  printing  race  is  HP’s 
DeskJet  880C.  It  also  streaks 
ahead  in  the  business  graphics 
test,  dropping  the  completed  highest 
quality  page  in  just  1  min  24sec. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

Price  £239  (£203.40  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Epson  0800  220546 

www.epson.co.uk 

Good  Points  Excellent  photo 
reproduction 

Bad  Points  Poor  black  text  on 
photocopy  paper 

Conclusion  Number  one  for  photo 
printing 


HP  DeskJet  880C 


Like  all  Hewlett-Packard  printers, 

the  DeskJet  880C  is  exceptionally  easy 
to  install.  The  driver  has  selection 
buttons  for  quality  settings,  and  drop¬ 
down  menus  for  paper  size  and  type. 

A  second  tab  includes  options  for  two- 
sided  printing  and  image  orientation, 
while  the  Printer  Services  tab  lets  you 
clean  and 
align  your 
head 
without 
getting  your 
fingers 
grubby. 

All  ofthe  HP 
printers 
tested  here 
smoothed 


I 

the  edges  of  some  jagged,  non-scalable 
characters  on  our  business  letter, 
giving  the  page  a  more  professional 
image.  Draft  quality  text  on  photocopy 
paper,  which  was  dark  and  showed  no 
evidence  of  feathering,  was  almost 
good  enough  to  use  in  a  business 
situation.  Standard  quality  business 
graphics  on  photocopy  paper  were  also 
excellent,  with  some  ofthe  smoothest 
fades  we  have  seen  in  graduated 
stripes,  and  a  clean,  white  hairline 
running  through  the  block  of  black.  We 
were  surprised  that  our  business 
graphics  actually  looked  better  on 
photocopy  paper  than  on  HP’s  inkjet 
paper.  On  photo  paper  and  at  Best 
quality,  our  photo  looked  great. 
Colours  were  bright  and  vivid,  the  only 


problem  being  that  skin  tones 
came  out  rather  dark. 

The  880C  bundle  includes  instant 
delivery  software  that  will  schedule  the 
direct  printing  of  internet  material. 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★★ 

Price  £199  (£169.36  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Hewlett-Packard 
0990  474747  www.hp.com 
Good  Points  Smoothing  of  non- 
scalable  characters.  Good  draft  text  on 
photocopy  paper 
Bad  Points  None  to  speak  of 
Conclusion  A  well-built ,  sturdy  and 
versatile  photo  printer 


The  Z51  is  the  new  feather  in 
Lexmark’s  cap.  At  1 200x1 200dpi  it’s 
the  world’s  highest-resolution  printer, 
and  the  company  is  promoting  it  in 
both  the  office  and  photo  markets. 
Although  installation  was  easy  to 
follow,  it  did  require  two  reboots.  But 
we  found  the  Z51  particularly  easy  to 
use,  and  Lexmark 
had  incorporated 
its  usual  ink 
monitor  into  the 
driver  so  that 
we  could  see  at 
a  glance  how  much 
we  had  left.  Even 
at  Best  quality 
and  on 
Lexmark’s 


own  inkjet  paper,  the  cyan  block  in  our 
business  graphics  test  was  a  definite 
grey/blue.  It  had  no  problem  drawing  a 
white  hairline  through  the  solid  block 
of  black,  and  graduated  fades  were 
very  smooth  with  hardly  any  stepping. 
The  Z51’s  high  resolution  certainly 
paid  off  when  it  came  to  printing  our 
photo.  On  Lexmark  photo  paper  and  at 
the  highest  quality  setting,  it 
demonstrated  almost  continuous  tone 
with  no  grain  and  bright,  vivid  colours. 
Skin  tones  were  realistic,  there  was  no 
banding,  and  dark  tones  did  not  bleed 
into  lighter  ones.  Plain  text  on 
photocopy  paper  was  not  in  the  least 
bit  feathered,  and  at  Standard  quality 
even  4pt  text  was  clearly  legible.  In 
terms  of  speed  the  Z51  was  no  slouch, 


easily  beating  the  Canon  BJC 
71 00  at  high-quality  text 
printing,  but  losing  out  to  Epson’s  750 
when  it  came  to  high-quality  photos 
and  business  graphics. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £21 1.50  (£180  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Lexmark  0 1 628  481500 

www.  I  exmark.  co.  uk 

Good  Points  Fairly  fast.  Good  photo 
printing.  Almost  no  ink  fade  in  sunny 
windows 

Bad  Points  Slight  mis- matching  of 
business  graphics  colours 
Conclusion  A  quality  product  worthy 
of  consideration 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Photo  samples 


3 


BUDGET 
Canon  BJC-1 000 


Epson  Stylus  Color  440 


HP  DeskJet  61 0C 


Lexmark  Z1 1 
SMALL  BUSINESS 

Canon  BJC-6000 


Epson  Stylus  Color  900 

HP  DeskJet  895CXi 

Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 
PHOTO 

Canon  BJC-7100 

Epson  Stylus  Photo  750 

HP  DeskJet  880C 

Lexmark  Z51 


"u  W  \ 
S/\ 


BUDGET  SMALL  BUSINESS  PHOTO 


Canon  BJC-1 000  Epson  Stylus  Color  440  Canon  BJC-6000  Epson  Stylus  Color  900  Canon  BJC-7100  Epson  Stylus  Photo  750 


HP  Deskjet61  OCi  LexmarkZ1 1  HP  Deskjet  895CXi  Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5  HP  DeskJet  880C  LexmarkZ51 


182 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


CorelDRAW  samples 

BUDGET  SMALL  BUSINESS 


Canon  BJC-1 000  Canon  BJC -6000 


PHOTO 


Canon  BJC-71 00 


HP  DeskJet  61 0C  HP  DeskJet  895CXi  HPDeskJet880C 


LexmarkZII  Xerox  Docu print  Cl  5 


Lexmarl<Z51 


Text  samples 

BUDGET 

Canon  BJC-1 000 

Epson  Stylus  Color  440 

HP  DeskJet  61 OC 

Lexmark  Z1 1 
SMALL  BUSINESS 

Canon  BJC-6000 

Epson  Stylus  Color  900 

HP  DeskJet  895CXi 

Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 
PHOTO 

Canon  BJC-71 00 

Epson  Stylus  Photo  750 

HP  DeskJet  880C 

Lexmark  Z51 


*  plain  paper  *  inkjet  paper 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five  i 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 

To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 
To  do  this  part  of  the  printer  test,  send  this  document  to  the  printer  five 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


an 


PCW  Labs  Report 


Text  test  results 

Canon  BJC-1000 
Epson  Stylus  Color  440 
HP  DeskJet  61 OC 
Lexmark  Z1 1 
Canon  BJC-6000 
Epson  Stylus  Color  900 
HP  DeskJet  895CXi 
Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 
Canon  BJC-7100 
Epson  Stylus  Photo  750 
HP  DeskJet  880C 
Lexmark  Z51 


30  32  34  Spool  1st  Page  5th  Page  | 

00:04  02:07  10:17  1 

00:04  04:02  19:47 

00:03  01:07  05:17 

00:03  03:07  15:12 

00:01  01:11  05:36 

00:03  01:28  06:50 

00:06  01:16  05:59 

00:05  04:16  19:10 

00:04  00:41  02:48 

00:06  06:43  33:29 

00:03  00:31  02:04 

00:02  02:57  14:49 

00:01  00:25  01:37 

00:02  00:37  02:38 

00:02  00:26  01:44  1 

00:01  01:08  05:36 

00:04  04:18  21:14 

00:04  06:19  31:03 

00:06  01:48  08:31 

00:05  02:52  13:59  1 

00:03  00:24  01:36 

00:04  00:39  02:39 

00:02  00:22  01:45 

00:02  01:15  06:04 

I  Plain  paper 
Standard  quality 


Inkjet  paper 
Best  quality 
1  st  page 


I  Inkjet  paper 
Best  quality 
5th  page 


Corel  Draw!  and  photo  test  results 


Canon  BJC-1000 
Epson  Stylus  Color  440 
HP  DeskJet  61  OC 
Lexmark  Z1 1 
Canon  BJC-6000 
Epson  Stylus  Color  900 
HP  DeskJet  895CXi 
Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 
Canon  BJC-7100 
Epson  Stylus  Photo  750 
HP  DeskJet  880C 
Lexmark  Z51 


00:03 

00:17 

00:18 


Corel 

Inkjet  paper 

Best  quality 

■ 

Photo 

Plain  paper 

Best  quality 

■ 

Photo 

Photo  paper 
Best  quality 


02:49 

03:51 

10:11 

04:24 

05:20 

08:15 


How  we  did  the  tests 

We  subjected  the  printers  to  five 
rigorous  tests.  We  first  printed  five 
|  copies  of  a  business  letter  at  Draft, 
Standard  and  High  quality  on  inkjet  and 
photocopy  paper.  The  spool  time,  the 
time  for  the  first  page  to  drop,  and  the  time  for  the 
job  to  complete,  were  all  recorded.  Next,  we  printed 


business  graphics  at  both  Standard  quality  and 
Best  on  regular  photocopy  paper  and  the  proprietary 
inkjet  paper  of  the  printer  manufacturer.  Again, 
spool  and  job  completion  times  were  recorded. 

Finally,  we  printed  an  A4  photo  at  Best  quality  on 
photocopy  and  photo  paper.  Spool  and  completion 
times  were  noted.  I 


1M 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Table 
of  features 


Budget 

Printers 


Manufacturer 

Model 


Price  ex  VAT 
Price  inc  VAT 


\ 


BJC-1000 


£89.00 

£104.58 


Epson 

Stylus  Color  440 


£84.26 

£99.01 


Hewlett-Packard 
DeskJet  61  OC 


£67.23 

£79.00 


Lexmark 

Z11 


£100.00 

£117.50 


Telephone 


0121  666  6262 


0800  220546 


0990  4747  47 


01628  481500 


Website 


www.canon.co.uk 


www.epson.co.uk 


www.hp.com 


www.lexmark.co.uk 


Maximum  resolution  (dpi) 


720x360 


720x720 


600x600 


1200x1200 


Cartridges  held 


1 


2 


2 


1 


Cost  of  mono  cartridge  ex  VAT 


£19.99 


£13.48 


£22.90 


£19.53 


Cost  of  colour  cartridge  ex  VAT 


£24.99 


£14.54 


£25.30 


£23.57 


Input  paper  tray 


50  pages 


1 00  pages 


1 00  pages 


1 00  pages 


Office 

Printers 


Manufacturer 

Model 


Price  ex  VAT 


BJC-6000 


£199.00 


Epson 

Stylus  Color  900 


£299.00 


Hewlett-Packard 

DeskJet  895CXi 


£194.89 


Xerox 

Docuprint  Cl  5 


£219.00 


Price  inc  VAT 


£233.83 


£351.33 


£229 


£257.33 


Telephone 


0121  666  6262 


0800  220546 


0990  474747 


0800  787  787 


Website 


www.canon.co.uk 


www.epson.co.uk 


www.hp.com 


www.xerox.com 


Maximum  resolution  (dpi) 


1440x720 


1440x720 


600x600 


1200x1200 


Cartridges  held 


2 


2 


2 


2 


Cost  of  mono  cartridge  ex  VAT 


£8.99  ink  only 


£18.61 


£22.90 


£20.00 


Cost  of  colour  cartridge  ex  VAT 


£6.99  each  inkwell 


£22.33 


£25.30 


£28.95 


Input  paper  tray 


1 30  pages 


1 00  pages 


1 00  pages 


1 50  pages 


Photo 

Printers 


— i 


Manufacturer 

Canon 

Epson 

Hewlett  Packard 

Lexmark 

Model 

BJC-7100 

Stylus  Photo  750 

DeskJet  880C 

Z51 

Price  ex  VAT 

£249.00 

£203.40 

£169.36 

£180.00 

Price  inc  VAT 

£292.58 

£239.00 

£199 

£211.50 

Telephone 

0121  666  6262 

0800  220546 

0990  47  47  47 

01628  481500 

Web  site 

www.canon.co.uk 

www.epson.co.uk 

www.hp.com 

www.lexmark.co.uk 

Maximum  resolution  (dpi) 

1200x600 

1440x720 

600x600 

1200x1200 

Cartridges  held 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Cost  of  mono  cartridge  ex  VAT 

£29.99 

£13.48 

£22.90 

£19.53 

Cost  of  colour  cartridge  ex  VAT 

£31.99  cart  &  ink 

£19.99  just  ink 

£10.24 

£25.30 

£24.69 

Input  paper  tray 

130  pages 

1 00  pages 

1 00  pages 

1 00  pages 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


389 


Reaction  to  sunlight 


nl<  reacts  to  sunlight,  fading  after 
time.  This  is  something  the  inkjet 
manufacturers  are  aware  of,  and  try 
to  make  their  proprietary  inks,  used  in 
every  one  of  their  printers,  resistant  to 
fading.  To  test  how  light-fast  the  ink  in 
each  of  our  test  printers  was,  we  printed 
our  standard  test  photo  twice  on  each 


manufacturer’s  own  photo  paper.  One 
copy  was  filed  away  in  a  drawer  for  a 
month,  while  the  other  was  stuck  to  a 
west-facing  window  to  see  what  effect 
the  light  would  have  on  the  once-vivid 
colours.  As  you  can  see  from  the  results, 
the  effect  was  far  more  striking  on  the 
output  of  some  printers  than  on  that  of 


other  models  tested  here.  It’s  worth 
bearing  these  results  in  mind  ifyou 
intend  to  use  your  printer  for  blowing 
up  your  holiday  snaps,  and  especially  if 
you’re  thinking  of  framing  them  and 
poppingthem  up  on  a  wall,  unless 
you’re  happy  for  them  to  degrade  over 
a  fairly  short  period  of  time. 


Samples  exposed  to  sunlight 


Canon  BJC-71 00  Epson  Stylus  Color  440  HP  DeskJet  895CXi  Lexmark  Z51  Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 

Samples  kept  in  a  file 


Canon  BJC-71 00  Epson  Stylus  Color  440  HP  DeskJet  895CXi  Lexmark  Z51  Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 


Running 

To  get  an  idea  ofthe  real  running 
costs  ofthe  printers,  we  installed 
a  new  cartridge  in  each  printer 
and  ran  it  dry  by  printing  full  text  pages. 
Each  page  was  numbered  so  that  we 
could  keep  track  ofthe  point  at  which 
the  ink  supply  was  exhausted.  The  results 
ofthe  test  revealed  that  although  some 


costs 

ofthe  printers  on  test  were  very  cheap, 
the  true  running  costs  might  offset  the 
initial  purchase  price.  The  graph  below 
shows  the  number  of  pages  printed  and 
the  cost  per  page. 

Taking  a  typical  office  scenario 
printing  2,000  pages  a  year  (around  eight 
pages  per  day)  and  keeping  the  printer 


for  three  years,  the  best  combination 
of  initial  price  and  running  costs  was  the 
Epson  440,  with  the  worst  case  being 
the  Lexmark  Z1 1 .  Increasing  the  load 
on  the  printer  to  5000  pages  a  year  and 
the  Canon  BJC-6000  sneaked  ahead  of 
the  Epson  440,  with  the  Lexmark  Z1 1 
still  coming  in  last. 


I - 

Endurance  test 

0  100  200  300  400  500  600  700  800  900 

|  Canon  BJC-1000 

j  Epson  Stylus  Color  440 
HP  DeskJet  61 0C 
Lexmark  Z1 1 
Canon  BJC-6000 
|  Epson  Stylus  Color  900 
HP  DeskJet  89CXi 
Xerox  Docuprint  Cl  5 
I  Canon  BJC-71 00 

Epson  Stylus  Photo  750 
|  HP  DeskJet  880C 

Lexmark  Z51 

I _ 


3.  OF  PAGES 

PRINTED 

Cartridge 

COST  (INC  VAT) 

349 

£29.36 

332 

£15.84 

344 

£26.91 

138 

£27.69 

399 

£10.56 

789 

£21.87 

553 

£26.91 

683 

£23.50 

523 

£35.24 

329 

£15.84 

590 

£26.91 

224 

£22.95 

Cost  per 
page 

8.41  p 
4.77P 
7.82P 
20.07P 
2.65P 
2.77P 
4.87P 
3.44P 
6.74P 
4.81  p 
4.56P 
10.24P 


"I 


-I 


i m 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Editor’s  Choice 


Hewlett-Packard  has  been 
claiming  for  some  years  now 
that  dot  pitch  is  an  obsolete 
measurement  of  quality.  The  company 
touts  alternative  technology  such  as 
PhotoREt,  whereby  colours  are  layered  to 
produce  a  wider  variety  of  shades.  It 
argues  that  this  allows  its  printers  to 
achieve  what  the  eye  perceives  as 
continuous  tone  without  breaking  the 
600dpi  barrier. 

HP  also 
champions 
SmartFocus 
which 
improves 
the  look 
of  low- 
resolution 
images 
such  as 
those 

downloaded 
from  the 
internet. 

The  three  highest-resolution 
printers  in  this  group  test  doubled 
HP’s  600dpi,  achieving  a  stunning 
1 200  x  1 200dpi,  but  none  ofthem 
received  an  Editor’s  Choice  award, 
proving  that  to  a  degree  Hewlett-Packard 
is  right  —  resolution  is  not  the  ultimate 
measure  of  what  makes  a  good  printer. 

ir  That  said,  Lexmark’s  Z51 
impressed  us  greatly.  Aiming  a  printer 
at  both  the  photo  and  office  markets  is  a 
brave  move,  and  the  quality  of  its  output 
was  certainly  good  enough  for  all 
but  the  most 
demanding 

►The  Hewlett- 
Packard  DeskJet 
895CXI  MAKES  ITS 
MARK  IN  BUSINESS 
PRINTING 


PERFORMANCE 


printers  are  subjected  in  our  labs  takes 
into  account  even  the  most  minute 
differences  between  one  model  and 
another.  It  beat  every  other  contender  in 
our  fade  tests,  and  after  a  month  in  a 
sunny  window,  its  output  most  closely 
resembled  the  original  article,  so  we 
didn’t  feel  we 

YThe  Epson  could  let  it  walk 

Stylus  Color  440 

away  empty 
handed.  We 
therefore  award  it 
a  special  Highly 


IS  A  BUDGET 
PRINTER  THAT 
EXCELS  IN  EASE  OF 
USE  AND 


Commended 

award. 


of 

users. 

Had  we 

been  end-users,  we 
would  have  been 
more  than  happy  with 
theZ51,  and  the  only 
reason  it  was  pipped 
to  the  post  in  our  test  is  that 
the  close  scrutiny  to  which  all 


•*-  We  have 
decided  this 
month  to  give 
three  Editor’s 
Choice  awards,  one  for 
each  ofthe  three 
categories:  budget, 
small  business  and 
photo.  The  first 
of  our 
Editor’s 
Choice  awards 
goes  to  the  Epson 
Stylus  Color  440, 
appearing  in  the  budget  category.  It’s 
top  resolution  of  720  x  720dpi  would 
have  rivalled  some  ofthe  best  printers 
on  the  market  just  1 2  months  ago.  It’s 
very  easy  to  use,  which  perhaps  explains 
why  it’s  such  a  popular  bundle  item  for 
PC  manufacturers.  It  was 
pretty  zippy  in  our 
text-printing  test, 
and  we  were 
impressed  with 
its  photocopy- 
paper  performance, 
which  will  really  cut 
down  on  running  costs. 

It  may  not  have  had  the 
highest  resolution,  but 
that  in  no  way 
impeded  its 
performance. 

•r  Hewlett- 
Packard  takes 
home  our 
second  Editor’s 
Choice  award  for  the 
DeskJet  895CXi,  which 
performed  well  in  the  business 


printers  category.  In  true  HP  style,  its 
installation  routine  was  absolute 
simplicity,  and  the  on-desktop  printer 
toolbox  gave  instant  access  to  the  most 
commonly  used  maintenance  functions 
without  us  having  to  get  physical  with 
the  unit  itself.  Although  not  appearing  in 
our  photo  printer  category,  the  quality  of 
the  CXi’s  photographic  reproduction 
was  hard  to  fault,  and  at  Draft  quality  its 
textual  output  was  not  only  very  quick  to 
appear,  but  also  good  enough  to  use  as 
final  business  documents. 

Although  the  stacked  input  and 
output  trays  mean  that  the  DeskJet 
895CXi  is  about  as  far  away  as  you  can 
get  from  a  straight  paper  path,  it  does 
keep  things  neat,  like  every  other  DeskJet 
in  this  range,  this  model  has  excellent 
paper-handling  capabilities. 

ir  Our  third  and  final  Editor’s 
Choice  award  goes  to  a  contender  in 
the  photo  printer  market,  the  Epson 
Stylus  Photo  750.  Although  it 
demonstrated  some  feathering  on  both 
photocopy  and  inkjet  paper  when 
printing  black  text,  by  far  the  most 
important  consideration  in  this 
category  was  how  it 
handled  our  A4  photo: 
in  this  respect,  the 
Photo  750  excelled. 
Skin  tones  were  a 
very  close  match 
for 


the 

original 
image,  and 
neither  banding 
nor  graininess 
could  be  found 

anywhere  on  the  page.  On  areas  where 
dark  colours  shared  a  common  border 
with  lighter  ones  there  was  no  bleeding, 
so  all  edges  remained  crisp  and  clean.  At 
just  over  £200  ex  VAT  it  was  also 
excellent  value  for  money.  □ 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


191 


Illustration  by  Paul  Shorrock 


192 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


PC  utilities  have  something  for  everyone,  from  problem-solving 
packages  to  handy  little  helpers  every  computer  should  have. 


Utility  software  is  designed  to  do 
one  of  three  types  ofjob.  It  can 
prevent  problems  before  they 
happen  and  correct  problems  after  they 
have  happened;  it  can  add  features  to 
existing  software  (such  as  enhancements 
to  tools  that  come  with  Windows);  or  it 
can  do  something  which  makes 
computing  life  easier  (such  as  take  the 
stress  out  of  Internet  searching  or  read 
unusual  file  formats). 

Utility  software  has  become  a  huge 

market,  offering  everything  from  useful 
little  tools  that  take  up  just  a  few 
kilobytes  of  disk  space,  through  to  huge 
disk-gobbling  packages  which  attempt 
to  do  everything  except  make  the  tea. 
The  majority  soon  find  a  home  on 
somebody’s  computer,  but  there  are  a 
few  that  should  find  a  home  on 
everybody’s  computer. 

Ratings 

Highly  recommended 
★★★★  Great  buy 
★★★  Good  buy 
Shop  around 
^  Not  recommended 


Here  we  look  at  20  of  the  best 

utilities  around.  Included  among  them 
are  programs  that  make  hard-disk 
partitioning  fun  instead  of  a  nightmare, 
that  allow  you  to  run  multiple  operating 
systems  at  the  same  time,  that  can  find 
valuable  free  hard-disk  space,  compress 
bulky  files,  protect  data  from  prying 
eyes,  bring  files  back  from  the  dead 
following  a  hard-disk  crash,  and  much, 


much  more. 


Contents 

194  Acrobat  Reader,  Backup  Exec 
Desktop  98,  ClipMate  5 

195  Copernic,  DisplayMate  For 
Windows,  Drive  Image  3.0 

197  FreeSpace,  Lost  and  Found, 
Net.Medic 

199  Norton  System  Works,  Partition 
Magic,  Post-it  Software  Notes 

202  PowerDesk,  Quick  View  Plus, 
RealPlayer  G2 

203  System  Commander  Deluxe, 
WebFerret,  WinZip 

204  WS_FTP  Pro,  ZipMagic,  Other 
useful  utilities 

•  Utilities  reviewed  by  Paul  Begg,  Roger  Gann  and 

Nik  Rawlinson 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


193 


Acrobat  Reader 


1 


There’s  no  reason  why  you  shouldn’t 
have  Acrobat  Reader  among  your 
utilities.  It’s  useful,  easy-to-use  and  can 
be  downloaded  free  on  the  Internet! 
Acrobat  is  a  software  package  used  by 
people  to  create  documents  in  a  format 
known  as  PDF  (Portable  Document 
Format),  which  gives  them  the 
advantage  of  appearing  exactly  as  they 
were  created,  regardless  of  the  medium 
or  the  platform.  So  PDF  files  printed 
from  a  Mac  look  exactly  the  same  as 
when  downloaded  to  a  PC  from  the  net 
and  viewed  on-screen.  Acrobat, 
currently  in  version  4,  can  be  bought  as 
a  separate  package  for  £1 49  ex  VAT  if 


you  need  to  create  PDF  files. 
Originally,  Acrobat  Reader  was  a  free 
utility  Acrobat  users  could  distribute 
along  with  their  PDF  documents.  Over 
the  years,  however,  more  and  more 
people  have  started  using  Acrobat  to 


create  documents  for  publication  on 
the  Internet.  Ifyou  download  these,  you 
need  the  Reader  to  view  them,  so  the 
Reader  has  become  an  essential  utility. 
You  can  view  files  as  a  page,  a  page  with 
an  index  (as  illustrated)  or  a  page  with 
thumbnails.  You  can  zoom  in  or  out  of 
the  page  and  it  will  always  be  seen 
exactly  as  its  creator  intended. 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  Free 


Contact  Adobe  01 81  6064001 

www.adobe.com 


j 


Backup  Exec  Desktop  98 


Today’s  PCs  come  with  multi-gigabyte 
hard  disks,  and  with  so  much  data  in 
use,  the  need  for  good  back-ups  has 
never  been  greater.  Windows  98  comes 
with  a  Mite’  version  of  Backup  Exec,  but 
for  serious  backup  jobs  you’ll  want  the 


bells  and  whistles  version,  Backup  Exec 
Desktop  98.  The  Backup  Exec  supports 
a  range  of  backup  media,  including 
SCSI  and  IDE  removable  media  devices, 
parallel-port  tape  devices,  floppy  disks, 
hard  drives,  network  drives,  CD-R,  CD- 
RW  and  DVD-RAM,  and  can 
automatically  detect  all  of  these. 

The  user-friendly  interface  resembles 
Explorer:  it  also  features  a  number  of 
wizards  to  simplify  the  backup  process. 
A  drive  tree  allows  the  easy  selection  of 
individual  files,  folders  or  complete 
drives.  You  can  also  choose  the  type  of 
backup  to  perform:  full,  incremental  or 
differential.  The  catalogue/find  feature 


makes  it  easy  to  locate  an  individual  file 
for  an  immediate  restore.  Full  back-ups 
or  restores  are  just  a  matter  of  pointing 
to  and  clicking  on  major  choices  -  the 
source  and  destination  drives. 

It  can  also  create  an  Emergency  Disk, 
letting  you  boot  and  restore  back-ups 
without  reinstalling  Windows  98  first, 
and  can  perform  scheduled  back-ups. 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 


Price  £52.88  (£45  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Veritas  Software  0870 
243  1080  vww.veritas.com 


j 


ClipMate  5 


ClipMate  is  an  enhancement  for 
Windows  Clipboard,  and  once 
installed,  you’ll  wonder  how  you  ever 
managed  without  it  -  we  know  that’s  a 
hackneyed  phrase,  but  it’s  true. 
Clipboard  is  frustrating  in  that  unless 
you’re  running  Office  2000,  you  can 
only  copy  one  item  to  it  at  a  time,  which 
is  annoying  if  you’re  copying  a  series  of 
extracts  from  a  document  and  you 
can’t  save  to  the  clipboard  and  hold 
stuff  there  until  you’re  ready  to  use  it. 
That’s  where  ClipMate  steps  in  and 
makes  itself  indispensable. 

As  you  may  have  guessed,  you  can  copy 
multiple  items  to  ClipMate  -  and  that 
includes  graphics  and  text.  ClipMate 


also  doubles  as  a  screen  capture  utility, 
being  able  to  save  and  export  captured 
images  as  bitmaps  orJPEGs. 

You  can  also  store  images  in  collections, 
which  turns  ClipMate  into  a  mini¬ 
database  for  clippings.  And  you  can 
edit  the  clippings  from  within  ClipMate 
too  because  this  little  utility  boasts  an 


array  of  editing  features  you’d  only  find 
in  a  standalone  text  editor.  The  latest 
version  also  includes  the  new  ClipMate 
Explorer,  which  looks  like  the  Windows 
Explorer,  and  lets  you  view  in  List  mode 
orThumbnail  mode,  and  you  can 
select,  preview,  edit  and  manage  clips, 
as  well  as  retrieve,  append,  print, 
reformat,  and  edit  data. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

Price  $20  (£12.50)  if  ordered 
online ,  $25  (£15.62)  by  post  and 
ifyou  require  a  disk 
Contact  Thornsoft  001  716 
352  4223  www.thornsoft.com 


194 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Copernic 


A 


Finding  what  you  want  on  the  Internet 
has  become  increasingly  frustrating 
over  the  years,  and  a  number  of  utilities 
have  been  introduced  to  speed  up  the 
process.  One  of  the  best  is  Copernic, 
and  the  amazing  thing  about  it  is  that  a 
version  can  be  downloaded  from  the  net 
that  costs  you  absolutely  nothing. 
Copernic  simultaneously  consults  up  to 
32  of  the  major  search  engines  for 
responses  to  your  search  criteria.  By 
consulting  more  than  one  search 
engine,  Copernic  manages  to  find  even 
the  most  obscure  responses.  Then 
Copernic  lists  them  in  order  of  priority 
and  keeps  the  list  so  you  can  consult  it 


later  -  no  more  searching  for  that 
fabulous  website  you  forgot  to 
bookmark!  On  top  of  which,  you  can 
update  the  list  whenever  you  feel  like  it. 
You  can  search  the  web,  newsgroups 
and  email.  The  basic  version  of 


Copernic  does  this  all  for  free,  but  a 
nominal  fee  can  get  you  a  souped-up 
version.  This  lets  you  narrow  your 
searches  to  21  categories,  such  as 
Books,  Kids,  Health,  Music  and  Movies, 
but  increases  the  number  of  search 
engines  consulted  to  1 25  or  more. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

Price  Free  to  download  or 
increased  functionality  registered 
version  for  $29. 95  (£  18.72) 

Contact  Copernic  Technologies 
(Canada)  ernic.  com 


DisplayMate  For  Windows 


It’s  curious,  but  while  we  all 
spend  ages  making  sure  our 
computer  runs  smoothly, 
configure  Windows  to 
operate  just  the  way  we  like  it,  and  tune 
our  programs  to  achieve  optimum 
efficiency,  the  thing  we  neglect  is  the 
display,  which  we  stare  at  for  hours  at  a 
time.  Is  your  video  display  running  at  its 
best?  With  DisplayMate  for  Windows, 
you  can  find  out. 

DisplayMate  is  a  utility  for  setting  up, 
tuning,  testing  and  evaluating  any 
computer  monitor  or  video  display  for 
optimum  image  and  picture  quality.  It's 
easy  to  use,  and  no  experience  of  video 


whatsoever  is  needed.  It  works  by 
presenting  over  110  specially  designed 
and  highly  sensitive  test  patterns  which 
address  every  image  problem  you  could 
think  of.  Each  test  pattern  is 
accompanied  by  a  detailed  Information 
Screen  explaining  what  you  should  look 
for,  and  there  are  detailed  step-by-step 
instructions  ofwhat  to  do  if  the  image 
can  be  improved. 

DisplayMate  may  address  every  display 
problem  this  side  of  Alpha  Centauri, 


but  it  only  addresses  one  type 
of  computer  problem,  and  the 
price  seems  exorbitant  when 
compared  to  a  product  like 
Norton  System  Works,  which 
addresses  a  broad  range  of  problems. 
That  said,  if  the  optimum  display  is 
important  to  you,  DisplayMate  is  the 
answer  you’ll  have  been  looking  for. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £81.08  (£69  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Meko  01276  22677 

www.displaymate.com  l 


Drive  Image  3.0  takes  an  image  ofyour 
hard  disk  or  partitions  and  stores  it  on 
another  local  drive,  partition,  network, 
or  removeable  drive.  It  takes  a  complete 
snapshot  ofyour  operating  system, 
applications  and  configurations.  This 
allows  you  to  restore  your  whole  system 
to  the  way  it  was  or,  alternatively,  to 
upgrade  your  hard  disk  if  you  can’t  face 
reinstalling  everything.  But  its  main 
function  is  workstation  cloning,  when 
you’re  rolling  out  a  network:  it  can 
‘multi-cast’  one  image  copy  across  the 
network  to  multiple  workstations.  It 
can  copy  FAT,  FAT32,  NTFS,  Linux, 
Unix,  NetWare  and  HPFS  partitions. 
Drive  Image  is  basically  a  DOS  utility 


fronted  by 
a  GUI  and 
will  support 
8Gb  hard 
drives,  and 
image  files 
up  to  2Gb. 

You  can  run 
the  process  from  the  menus  or  use  the 
step-by-step  Wizards.  Options  include 
the  ability  to  compress  image  files,  and 
the  ability  to  span  multiple  drives  or 
disk  cartridges. 

The  Drive  Image  File  Editor  lets  you 
select  specific  files  from  your  drive 
image  if  you  don’t  want  to  restore  the 
whole  thing.  You  can  also  cut  and  paste 


between  partitions.  The  Pro 
version  comes  bundled  with  a  copy 
of  that  useful  hard-disk  utility, 
Partition  Magic.  This  is  essential, 
as  Drive  Image  doesn’t  allow  you 
to  resize  partitions. 

Although  invaluable  for  network 
administrators,  the  needs  of  single 
users  are  better  met  by  DriveCopy. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★ 

Price  1 0-user  licence  £1 46.53 
(£124.70  ex  VAT) 

Contact  POW!  Distribution 
01202  716726 

www.  powercjuest.  com. _  / 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


195 


FreeSpace 


A 


Who  doesn’t  need  more  disk  space?  A 
hard  disk  is  rather  like  a  loft  or  a  cellar: 
no  matter  how  big  it  is,  it  seems  to  get 
filled.  It  might  be  filled  with  junk,  but 
it’s  the  sort  of  junk  you  might  need  one 
day  and  which  takes  a  hardened  spirit 
to  deposit  in  a  black  plastic  bag.  Buying 
a  new  and  bigger  hard  disk  simply  isn’t 
always  feasible,  so  a  budget,  hardball 
compression  utility  like  FreeSpace  can 
be  a  boon. 

Unlike  a  basic  file-compression  utility 
such  as  a  Zl P  utility,  which  is  essentially 
designed  to  create  a  ZIP  archive, 
FreeSpace  first  shrinks  the  files  to  their 
smallest  possible  size,  then  uses  the 


TightCluster  feature  to  squeeze  them 
even  tighter  still.  The  space  you  gain  is 
little  less  than  remarkable  -  1 50Mb  of 
TIF  graphics  files  can  be  compressed  to 
a  mere  31  Mb.  That’s  1 1 9Mb  of  hard¬ 
disk  space  released  for  other  uses.  You 


can  even  tell  FreeSpace  how  much  space 
you  need  and  it  will  search  your  hard 
disk  for  the  space.  The  best  thing  about 
FreeSpace  is  that  the  compressed  files 
open  and  close  and  otherwise  behave  as 
if  they  were  uncompressed  files. 
FreeSpace  comes  on  a  single  floppy  disk 
and  is  a  snip  to  install  and  use,  with 
Wizards  holding  your  hand  step-by-step 
through  the  compressing  process. 

PCW  DETAI  LS 

★★★★ 

Price  £29.99  (£25.52  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Mijenix  01297  552222 

www.mijenix.com  / 


Lost  and  Found 


Lost  and  Found  is  a  bit  expensive, 
especially  when  you  remember  that  it’s 
a  piece  of  software  you’ll  hopefully 
never  have  to  use.  On  the  other  hand, 
it’s  a  bit  like  health  insurance  in  that  if 
there’s  an  emergency  you’ll  be  glad 


_ 

you’ve  got  it.  And  health  insurance  isn’t 
a  bad  analogy,  because  Lost  and  Found 
restores  your  all-important  data 
following  a  disk-head  crash,  corruption 
by  a  rogue  application  or  virus 
infection,  and  any  other  data-loss 
nightmare  on  computer  street. 

If  War  and  Peace  is  a  book  you’ve  never 
read  but  wanted  to,  Lost  and  Found 
will  give  you  the  chance.  This  software 
is  very  thorough.  It  begins  by  scanning 
your  hard  disk  -  which  is  when  you’ll 
want  War  and  Peace  to  hand  -  finds  the 
files,  and  colour-codes  them  according 
to  their  chances  of  recovery.  You 


choose  what  you  want  to  bring  back 
from  the  dead,  and  hey  presto!  You’ll 
need  to  have  another  drive  and  a  large 
pile  of  floppies  to  back  up  to,  however. 
Lost  and  Found  comes  on  a  single 
floppy  and  is  booted  from  DOS.  It  is  a 
heart-stopping  disaster  recovery  utility 
and  may  you  never  have  to  use  it. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £49.35  (£42  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Software  Warehouse 

08000355355 

www.displaymate.com  J 


Net.  Medic 


We  all  want  faster  Internet 
connectivity,  but  it’s  often  hard  to 
identify  where  the  bottlenecks  lie. 
Net.Medic  is  a  browser  companion 
that  monitors,  diagnoses  and  corrects 
Internet  or  intranet  performance 
problems  and  lets  you  identify  the 
source  of  any  network  bottleneck. 
Net.Medic  is  happy  with  both 
Navigator  and  Internet  Explorer 
browsers.  A  30-day  trial  version  is 
available  from  www.ins.com 
Net.Medic’s  data  is  displayed  in  a 
control  panel  consisting  of  several 
animated  meters.  The  default  display 
consists  of  a  scrolling  ticker  and  three 
real-time  display  panes.  The  ticker 


displays 
performance 
stats  related  to 
the  site  you’re 
currently 
connected  to, 
including  site 
name,  URL,  page 
size,  number  of 
visits,  and 
estimated 
network  and  site 
delays.  The 
modem-status 
panel  shows  transfer  rate  and  data 
compression,  while  the  ISP  pane  has  a 
graph  that  indicates  any  delays  over 


time  and  estimated  congestion. 

If  a  component’s  performance  drops, 
its  graphic  turns  yellow;  more  serious 
problems  turn  it  red.  Double-click  on  a 
problem  item  and  a  health  log  pops  up. 
Then  ask  Net.Medic  for  a  diagnosis.  If 
the  problem  lies  with  you,  an  auto-cure 
option  is  available;  if  with  the  ISP  or 
website,  you  can  fire  off  a  technical  log 
email  to  notify  the  powers-that-be. 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £4  7. 13  (£35  ex  VAT) 
Contact  INS  01628  503000 

www.ins.com 


y 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


I 


If  you  want  an  all-round  utilities 
package,  you  have  a  number  of  excellent 
choices.  First  up,  McAfee  Office  is  a 
collection  of  nine  programs.  Previously 
sold  separately,  there  is  no  integration, 
inevitable  duplication,  and  1 54Mb  of 
gobbled-up  hard-disk  space.  Secondly, 
the  excellent  Fix-It  Utilities  finds  and 
clears  viruses,  runs  the  usual  hard-disk 
diagnostics,  has  crash  protection,  an 
uninstaller,  a  registry  checker  and  Year 
2000  diagnostics.  It  includes  the 
indispensable  PowerDesk  Utilities  98, 
occupies  40Mb  hard-disk  space,  and 
costs  £39  -  the  best  buy  for  home  users. 
But  old  favourite  Norton  System  Works 


remains  the  creme  de  la  creme  of  the 
utility  world.  It's  almost  double  the 
price  of  Fix-It,  but  combines  Norton’s 
Utilities  4.0,  Antivirus  5.0,  Cleansweep 
4.5,  Crashguard  4.0,  and  a  six-month 
subscription  to  Norton  Web  Services. 
And  it  all  fits  in  1 22Mb. 

Norton  Utilities  groups  20  tools  under 


four  categories:  Find  and  Fix  Problems 
(Norton  WinDoctor,  Norton 
CrashGuard,  Norton  Disk  Doctor); 
Improve  Performance  (Speed  Disk, 
Optimisation  Wizard);  Preventative 
Maintenance  (Norton  System  Doctor, 
Rescue  Disk,  Registry  Tracker);  and 
Troubleshoot  (Norton  Registry  Editor, 
Norton  Web  Services). 

FCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £ 86.95  (£74  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Symantec  0 1 628  592 

222  www.  syman  tec.  co.  uk 


Partition  Magic 


Partition  Magic,  which  takes  the  effort 
out  of  partitioning  a  large  hard  disk,  is 
an  established  product  which  has 
reached  version  4.0.  Formerly  a  DOS 
program,  it  has  finally  entered  the 
Windows  world.  With  large  hard  disks, 


partitioning  is  essential,  having  the 
additional  advantage  of  being  able  to 
reclaim  hard-disk  space  lost  to 
inefficient  FAT  (File  Allocation  Table) 
partitions  if  you’re  running  Windows 
95  or  3.X.  Frankly,  doing  anything 
which  affects  areas  such  as  the  FAT  and 
other  esoteric  areas  of  the  computer  is 
scary.  But  Partition  Magic  does  its  best 
to  ease  the  exercise.  Bright,  jolly  and 
comfortable,  with  large,  friendly  icons 
and  an  overall  feeling  of  fun,  its 
Wizards  guide  you  step-by-step 
through  the  partitioning  process.  You 
can  preview  the  effects  of  partitioning 
before  making  changes,  and  create, 


move  and  resize  partitions. 

Partition  Magic  includes  support  for 
FAT,  FAT32,  NTFS,  HPFS  and  Linux 
ext2,  and  it  lets  you  switch  between 
FAT  and  FAT32,  and  move  programs 
between  partitions.  This  mix  of  power 
and  features  makes  it  a  winner.  And 
you  get  BootMagic  too,  which  lets  you 
use  multi-operating  systems. 


FCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

Price  £49.98  (£42.54  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Pow!  01202  716  726 

www.  powerquest.  com 


Post-it  Software  Notes 


It  seems  that  no  office  is  free  of  those 
yellow  Post-it  notes.  They  get  stuck 
everywhere!  And  you  can  stick  them  on 
your  computer  in  all  senses  of  the  word 
-  stick  the  paper  version  on  your 
monitor  or  the  software  version  on 
your  hard  disk. 

The  electronic  Post-it  note  works  in  the 
same  way  as  the  paper  version  -  just 
click,  type  your  note,  and  stick  it  on 
your  desktop  -  but  has  additional 
benefits  which  can  make  it  almost 
indispensable.  To  begin  with,  you  can 
set  alarms  to  go  off  and  remind  you  of 
appointments,  meetings,  or  just  things 
you  have  to  do.  You  can  organise  and 
store  your  notes  on  customised 


Memoboards,  which  makes  this  useful 
for  keeping  information  such  as  price 
lists  or  internal  phone  numbers  to  hand 
for  quick  consultation.  You  can  also 
automatically  insert  the  date/time  on 
notes,  which  is  useful  for  leaving 


messages,  and  if  you  and  a  colleague 
are  both  using  Post-it  Notes  and  are 
connected  via  a  LAN,  you  can  pop  up  a 
note,  photo,  or  figures  on  your  co¬ 
worker’s  computer. 

Post-it  Software  Notes  sounds  fun  and 
frivolous,  but  it  actually  has  so  many 
serious  uses  that  you’ll  find  yourself 
turning  to  it  far  more  frequently  than 
you’d  ever  imagined. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £23.50  (£20  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Inmac  0990  440033 

www.mmm.com/psnotes  J 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


199 


PowerDesk 


PowerDesk  is  a  replacement  for 
Windows  Explorer  and  it  really  is  the 
utility  that  we’d  most  hate  to  be 
without.  The  heart  is  a  File  Manager 
which,  like  Explorer,  has  two  viewer 
panes.  The  one  on  the  left  shows  the 
directories  and  the  one  on  the  right  lists 
the  files  -  and  it  does  all  the  things 
Windows  Explorer  will  do  such  as  copy, 
move  and  delete.  But  where  it  differs 
from  Windows  Explorer  is  that  it  has  an 
integrated  viewer  pane,  which  uses  the 
built-in  QuickView  utility  that  comes 
with  Windows.  With  support  for  80 
different  file  types,  this  means  that  you 
can  quickly  and  easily  view  text  and 


graphics  files  without  having  to  launch 
the  attendant  application. 

There  are  lots  of  additional  tools  such 
as  a  powerful  file  finder,  a  file 
synchroniser,  size  manager  and  a 
registry  editor.  With  these  tools  you  can 


find  Most’  files,  ensure  that  your  files  are 
the  same  on  your  desktop  and  laptop 
machines,  and  find  out  which  files  are 
occupying  the  most  hard-disk  space. 
There’s  also  a  useful  built-in  archive 
manager  which  supports  .ZIP,  .ARJ  and 
.LHA  formats,  and  a  graphics  converter 
with  which  you  can  convert  graphics 
between  24  formats. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

Price  £19.96  (£16.99  ex  VAT) 

Contact  Mijenix  01297  552222 

www.  mijenix.  com  1 


Quick  View  Plus 


1 


A  reduced  version  of  the  QuickView 
file  viewer  comes  free  with  Windows. 
You  can  access  it  from  the  Windows 
Explorer  and  it  lets  you  view  files 
without  launching  the  associated 
application.  In  fact,  you  can  view  files 


without  even  having  the  associated 
application,  which  makes  it  useful 
indeed  if  you  receive  files  created  using 
programs  you  don’t  possess.  Quick 
View  Plus  is  a  worthwhile  enhancement 
to  QuickView  and  extends  its 
capability  to  view  files  to  about  200  file 
types,  including  Windows,  DOS,  Mac 
and  Internet  file  types. 

The  QuickView  Plus  File  Viewer  not 
only  lets  you  view  files  in  their  native 
formats  (or  as  text  or  hexadecimal),  it 
adds  basic  file  management,  the  ability 
to  print  a  file,  rotate,  zoom  and  show 
images  full-screen,  and  even  convert  an 


image  to  Windows  wallpaper.  Quick 
View  also  integrates  seamlessly 
with  PowerDesk  and  with  Adobe’s 
Acrobat  Reader. 

However,  most  people  won’t  need 
QuickView  Plus.  QuickView  itself  does 
pretty  much  all  that  the  average  user 
will  need,  and  copes  with  the  most 
common  formats. 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £34.99  (£28. 78  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Inso  01344  867222 


www.inso.co 


J 


RealPlayer  G2 


If  you  want  to  enjoy  video  and  audio 
streaming  over  the  Internet,  you’ll  need 
RealPlayer  G2.  Like  NetMeeting, 

Real  Player  G2  copes  with  a  variety  of 
Internet  streaming  media  types,  but 
you’ll  need  both  as  neither  supports  all 
streaming  formats.  RealPlayer  G2  is  a 
free  download:  RealPlayer  Plus  G2, 
which  costs  $29.99,  adds  an  equaliser 
and  customisation  features  such  as 
video  controls. 

G2  has  a  number  of  improvements  over 
version  5.0,  principally  in  the  area  of 
content  management  and  playback 
control.  It  also  offers  improved 
performance  through  a  new  music 
codec  technology,  new  video¬ 


smoothing 
capabilities, 
and  the 

introduction  of 
RealText  (for 
live  streaming 
text)  and 
RealPix  (for 
streaming  still 
images)  media  types.  It  updates  itself 
automatically,  using  push  technology. 
Sound  quality  remains  impressive  but 
still  a  long  way  short  of  hi-fi:  it’s 
roughly  on  a  par  with  AM  radio  but  in 
stereo,  and  that’s  with  an  ISDN  line. 
The  amazing  ability  to  display  low-res 
videos  in  sync  takes  some  of  the  edge 


off  our  carping,  though. 
Ultimately,  given  its  less  than 
compelling  (though  laudable) 
audio  performance  over  a 
dial-up  connection,  RealPlayer 
G2  is  for  those  with  the  luxury 
of  a  fast,  permanent  Internet 
connection.  When  we  all  have 
ADSL  or  cable  modems 
RealPlayer  will  be  a ‘must-have’  utility. 

PCW  DETAI  LS 

★★★★ 

Price  Free,  or  $29.95  (£18.72) 
for  the  Plus  version 
Contact  RealNetworks  0 1 932 
581000  fww.  uk.  real,  com 


202 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


System  Commander  Deluxe 


A 


Most  people  have  only  one  operating 
system  installed  on  their  PC,  but  there 
are  some  folk  who  need  more.  You  can 
use  good  old  FDISK  to  switch  active 
partitions  and  thus  choose  which  OS  to 
boot  with,  but  if  you  want  lots  of 
operating  systems  installed,  you’ll  need 
something  like  System  Commander 
Deluxe.  The  latest  version,  4.0,  includes 
an  OS  Wizard,  which  simplifies  the 
potentially  fraught  installation  process. 
This  finds  and  prepares  space  on  your 
hard  drive  for  an  additional  operating 
system.  It  also  lets  you  create,  format, 
resize  and  delete  disk  partitions, 
including  additional  goodies  such  as 


temporary  partition  hiding  and  FAT32 
conversions  for  use  under  Windows  9x. 
Version  4.0  supports  pretty  much  any 
OS,  including  Windows  95/98,  NT, 
OS/2  Warp,  CTOS,  NetWare,  NextStep, 
Pick,  QNX  and  various  Unix  platforms. 
You  can  install  up  to  1 00  operating 
systems  on  a  single  machine.  We 


cheerfully  installed  five  versions  of  DOS, 
some  in  their  own  private  partitions. 
There  are  a  couple  of  gotchas:  you  can’t 
use  it  on  compressed  drives,  and 
operating  systems  that  write  to  the 
Master  Boot  Record  (eg  Windows  98 
and  OS/2  Warp  4.0)  have  to  be  treated 
specially.  It’s  not  particularly  easy  to 
use,  but  once  setup,  it  works  very  well. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £49.99  (£42.55  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Media  Go  Id  0171  372 
9762 


WebFerret 


WebFerret,  like  Copernic,  is  an 
Internet  search  tool.  You  enter  the 
keywords  you  want  to  search  for,  then 
WebFerret  goes  to  work,  sending  the 
search  information  to  no  fewer  than  27 
search  engines.  It  then  retrieves  the 
results,  and  deletes,  duplicates  or  rates 
them  according 
to  which  it 
thinks  best  fit 
your  criteria. 

Selecting  a 
search  result 
causes  a  brief 
description  of 
the  page  to 


open  in  a  window,  and  a  double-click 
will  open  the  page  in  your  browser. 

The  Freeware  version  is  powerful  and 
demonstrates  the  power  of  the  Pro 
edition,  but  the  Pro  package  does  have 
an  array  of  additional  features.  For 
example,  only  the  Pro  version  lets  you 
view  Abstracts.  WebFerret 
Pro  employs  many  more 
search  engines,  as  one 
might  expect,  and  only  this 
version  eliminates 
duplicates.  It  also  has 
Boolean  searches,  search 
files  that  can  be  saved,  and 
results  are  ranked  by 


relevance.  WebFerret  Pro  can  be 
downloaded  for  $26.  95. 

Whether  or  not  you  prefer  Copernic  or 
WebFerret  is  really  a  matter  of  taste,  so 
it’s  useful  that  you  can  download  atrial 
version  of  both  from  the  Internet  -  and 
the  download  cost  of  both  will  soon  be 
repaid  with  faster,  more  efficient  and 
more  productive  searching. 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  Free 
Contact  FerretSoft 

www.  ferretsoft.  com 


WinZip 


If  you  send  files  over  the  Internet, 
especially  graphics  files,  then  it’s 
essential  that  you  compress  them.  This 
will  dramatically  reduce  the  time  it 
takes  to  send  and  receive  the  file.  The 
industry-standard  file  compression 
utility  is  WinZip. 

WinZip  tightly  integrates  with 
Windows  Explorer,  allowing  you  to  zip 
and  unzip  files  without  leaving 
Explorer.  WinZip  will  automatically 
install  almost  any  software 
downloaded  from  the  Internet, 
providing  the  Zip  files  contain  a  Setup 
or  Install  executable.  WinZip  also 
automatically  cleans  up  all  the 
temporary  files  involved  in  such  an 
installation. 


Newcomers  will  like  the  WinZip  Wizard 
which  holds  your  hand  through 
unzipping  and  installing  Zipped 
software.  Old  hands  can  turn  off  the 
Wizard  to  access  the  more  advanced 
zipping  features  available  by  using  the 
WinZip  Classic  interface. 

Very  useful  is  the  Favorite  Zip  Folders 
feature  which  lets  you  organise  Zip  files 


in  one  convenient  list  regardless  of 
where  they  are  stored  on  your  hard 
drive.  A  Search  facility  will  find  any  Zip 
files  lost  on  your  hard  disk.  Another 
excellent  feature  is  WinZip  Self- 
Extractor  Personal  Edition,  now 
included  with  WinZip,  which  lets  you 
create  self-extracting  Zip  files. 

WinZip  has  the  benefit  of  being 
shareware. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £ 23.49  (£19.99  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Software  Warehouse 
0800  035  5355  www.winzip.com  Jf 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


203 


WS  FTP  Pro 


1 


Many  web  authoring 

packages  have  FTP 
capabilities  built  in,  but  a 
lot  of  users  still  have  need 
for  a  standalone  FTP  utility. 

This  is  often  because  they 
use  the  authoring  tool  for 
downloading  from  the 
Internet,  and  find  that  the 
built-in  FTP  functions  of  Netscape 
Navigator  and  Internet  Explorer  are  too 
basic  for  their  needs. 

Split  into  two  independently  navigable 
windows,  WS_FTP  Pro  simultaneously 
displays  both  the  local  and  remote 
directories.  Transferring  a  file  or 


selection  offiles 
from  one  location 
to  the  other  is 
simply  a  matter  of 
highlighting  as 
appropriate  and 
then  clicking  either 
the  forward 
(transmit)  or  back 

(retrieve)  button. 

Setting  the  file-type  radio  button 
selection  to  Auto  means  that  WS_FTP 
will  detect  whether  to  use  ASCII  or 
binary  transfer  mode  itself.  WS_FTP 
Pro  can  also  be  set  to  log  all 
transactions  and  then  drop  a  file  of  all 


the  relevant  details  in  each  destination 
directory.  Another  powerful  feature  of 
WS_FTP  Pro  is  that  it  can  keep  track  of 
the  sites  you  visit,  and  the  user  names 
and  passwords  you  use  to  access  them. 
Your  saved  destinations  are  stored  on  a 
drop-down  menu  so  that  all  you  need  to 
do  is  click  ‘Connect’. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  Download  for  $37.50 

(£24.10) 

Contact  Ipswitch  001  781  676 

5700  (US)  www.ipswitch.co.uk 


ZipMagic 


WinZip  has  been  around  so  long  that 
it’s  hard  to  imagine  computing  without 
it,  but  recently  it  has  been  challenged 
by  ZipMagic  -  a  file-compression  utility 
so  easy  to  use  that  it  has  won  an  army 
of  staunch  supporters.  The  beauty  of 
ZipMagic  is  that  you  don’t  have  to 


unzip  files  to  use  them,  as  with 
conventional  file  compression. 
ZipMagic  treats  Zip  archives  as 
ordinary  folders.  It  automatically 
compresses  and  uncompresses  files  as 
and  when  you  need  them,  without  you 
having  to  launch  a  separate  application 
to  unzip  them  before  you  can  view  the 
contents.  You  can  browse  Zip  archives 
with  all  the  speed  and  ease  as  you 
would  an  ordinary  file.  You  can  use  it  to 
make  and  view  self-extracting  archives, 
and  convert  Zip  archives  into  them. 

The  program  includes  tools  to 
compress,  extract,  repair,  convert,  test, 
and  edit  the  contents  ofZip  archives, 


while  a  browser  plug-in  enables  you  to 
view  Zip  files  on-line. 

ZipMagic  has  an  excellent  Explorer-like 
interface  which  makes  zipping, 
unzipping  and  browsing  Zip  files  easy. 
It  also  integrates  seamlessly  with 
Explorer  and  meshes  with  PowerDesk. 
It  supports  more  file  compression 
formats  than  any  other  product. 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

Price  £  34. 99  (£29. 78  ex  VAT) 
Contact  Mijenix  01297 
552222  Avw.mijenix.com 


Other  useful  utilities 


While  the  20  utilities  featured  in  this 
group  test  are  useful  for  any  desktop, 
there  are  other  smaller  utilities  that  will 
make  your  computing  life  more 
pleasant.  With  the  explosion  of  MP3, 
no  PC  should  be  without  an  MP3 
player.  The  PCW  office  favourite  is 
Sonique  <www.sonique.com>,  but  try 
MusicMatch  4.05  <www.musicmatch. 
;om>  or  Real  Jukebox  from  Real 
Networks  <www.real.com>.  But  to  play 
MP3s  you  first  have  to  get  hold  of 
them.  MusicMatch  can  be  used  for 
encoding  MP3s  from  CDs,  while  there 
are  numerous  MP3  sites  from  which  to 
download  tracks  (see  the  MP3  feature 
on  pi  22  for  more  details). 


We  have  reviewed 
RealPlayer,  but  to  be 
able  to  play  all  kinds 
of  streaming  data,  you 
should  also  get  hold 
of  Apple  QuickTime  4 
<www.apple.com/ 
quicktime  and 
Microsoft’s 
Netmeeting  <www.microsoft.com>. 
Speaking  of  Internet  tools,  no  browser 
is  complete  without  a  raft  of  plug-ins. 
First  of  these  is  Shockwave  from 
Macromedia  <www.shockwave.com>. 
The  latest  version  comes  with  a  remote 
control  device  to  control  the  shockwave 
animations.  There  is  even  a 


ShockMachine  you 
can  buy  to  watch 
shockwave  movies 
and  animations, 
and  even  to  play 
shockwave  games 
(all  downloadable 
from  www. shock 
wave.com).  And 
you  shouldn’t  forget  Macromedia  Flash 
<  www.  m  aero  m  ed  i  a.  co  m/ software/fl  ash  > . 
Finally,  there  are  the  diagnostic  and 
system  tools  included  with  Windows 
98.  These  include  much  more  than 
ScanDisk  and  defrag  tools,  now  having 
useful  utilities  such  as  a  Maintenance 
Wizard  and  System  Information. 


204 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


best  buys 


|  Desktop  PCs  | 

Due  to  the  fast-moving  nature  of  the  PC  industry,  we  can  only 
recommend  particular  PCs  in  the  month  we  have  seen  them. 
Prices  change  almost  weekly,  as  component  prices  from  third-party 
suppliers  fluctuate  according  to  availability.  So,  for  the  best  current 
PC  buy,  for  instance,  look  at  last  month's  group  test  on  page  1 34. 

It  always  pays  to  take  a  little  care  when  buying  a  PC  or  in  fact  any 
hardware  or  software.  For  PCW’s  guide  to  buying  direct,  see  page 
285.  And  don’t  forget  to  use  the  PCW Order  Form  [page  286]. 

Everyone’s  ideal  PC  will  have  a  different  mix  of  components, 
with  gamers  needing  a  very  good  3D  graphics  card,  probably  a 
3D  sound  card  and  excellent  speakers,  while  business  users  will 
need  a  good  monitor  and  plenty  of  RAM. 


|  Entry-level  PCs  | _ 

Budget-conscious  buyers  might  consider  choosing  a  non-Intel 
processor  like  an  AMD.  But  be  aware  that  if  you  choose  a  Socket  7 
chip,  you’ll  only  be  able  to  upgrade  to  an  AMD  processor  in  future. 
Most  Celerons  are  only  being  sold  in  Socket  370  format  rather 
than  in  Slot  1  format,  so  if  you  get  a  Socket  370  processor  you 
won’t  be  able  to  upgrade  it  to  a  PI  1 1  at  a  later  date.  Check  what 
processor  format  you  will  get  when  you  order.  If  you  are  only 
offered  a  Socket  370  processor,  insist  on  a  Slot  1  board  and 
‘Slocket’  combination  with  1 00MHz  RAM  to  maximise  the 
upgrade  potential.  Look  at  last  month’s  group  test  for  £699  (inc 
VAT)  PCs. 

We  would  recommend  the  following  specification: 

•  AMD  K6-2  400  or  Intel  Celeron  400  processor 

•  32Mb  RAM 

•  4Gb  hard  drive 

•  Graphics  card  with  8Mb  video  RAM 

•  1 5in  monitor 

•  CD-ROM  drive 

Expect  to  pay  around  £599  (ex  VAT)  for  this  configuration,  but 
you  may  have  to  pay  extra  for  a  sound  card  and  speakers  or  a 
modem. 


|  Mid-range  PCs  | _ 

In  the  mid-range,  around  £1,000  (ex  VAT)  will  get  you  a  good 
all-round  PC.  The  introduction  of  higher-speed  Pills  has  meant 
the  slower  Pills  have  dropped  in  price,  bringing  them  into  this 
mid-range  category.  However,  the  stunning  result  of  the  K6-III, 
and  its  low  price,  make  it  worth  serious  consideration. 

Look  for  a  minimum  of: 

•  Intel  Pill  or  AMD  K6-III  500MHz  processor 

•  64Mb  RAM 

•  8Gb  hard  disk 

•  Good  3D  graphics  card  with  1 6Mb  video  RAM 

•  1 7in  monitor 

•  CD-ROM  drive 

•  Sound  card,  speakers,  56K  modem 

For  an  in-depth  look  at  the  K6-III ,  see  the  PC  group  test  in  our  July  ’99 
issue. 

|  High-end  PCs  | _ 

If  you’re  after  a  state-of-the-art  machine,  be  prepared  to  spend 
around  £1,500  to  £2,000  (ex  VAT).  What  you  require  at  this  price 
will  be  specific  to  your  needs,  depending  on  how  you  intend  to  use 
the  machine.  However,  as  a  basic  specification  we  would  want: 

•  Pill  600  or  Athlon  600MHz 

•  128Mb  100MHz  RAM 

•  1 6Gb  hard  drive 

•  Good  3D  graphics  card  with  32Mb  video  RAM 

•  1 9in  monitor 

•  DVD  drive 

•  Sound  card,  speakers,  56K  modem 

•  Bundled  office  suite 

For  a  close  look  at  Athlon,  see  this  month’s  group  test. 


High-end  notebook 


Sony 

Vaio  PCG  F190 

Designed  to  replace  your  desktop  PC, 
Sony’s  Vaio  FI  90  features  a  deliberately 
large  keyboard  and  1 4.1  in  TFT  display.  As 
standard  it  boasts  built-in  DVD-ROM 
and  floppy  drive,  DV  editing  facilities 
and  the  muscle  of  a  mobile 
366MHz  Intel  Pentium  II. 

Measuring  324  x  40  x 
265mm  and  weighing 
3.1  kg,  it  excels  as  a 
power  portable. 

PCW  May  ’99,  p84 


Price  £2,501.57  Contact  Sony  0990  424424 
Also  Recommended  Dell  Inspiron  7000 A366LT (PCW April  ’99) 
Price  £1, 820. 08  Contact  0870  1 52  4850  ♦  Compaq  Armada  7800, 
(PCW March  ’99)  Price  £3,461.55  Contact  Contact  01 81  3323000 


|  Mid-range  notebook 

Dell 

Inspiron  3500 

The  Dell  Inspiron  3500,  with 
its  Mobile  Celeron  366,  64Mb 
of  RAM  and  4.8Gb  hard  disk  is 
not  only  well  specified,  but  also 
has  an  outstanding  build 
quality.  The  screen  has  an  even 
luminescence  and  vivid  colours 
and  it  also  comes  with  a  very 
good  software  bundle. 

"ii*  PCW  September  ’99,  pi  81 


Price  £1,643.83  Contact  Dell  0870  152  4850  www.dell.co.uk 
Also  Recommended  Esprit  Tycoon  Price  £1,468.75  Contact  Esprit  01 670 
737888  (PCW September  ’99)+ Sharp  PC-A150  Price  £2,109. 13  Contact 
Sharp  0800262958  (PCW March  ’99) 


|  PDA  | _ 

Psion 

Series  5mx 


Retaining  the  Series  5’s 
good  looks,  Psion  has 
doubled  the  memory  size  and 
processor  speed  to  1 6Mb  and 
37MHz  respectively,  and  built 
email  software  into  the  ROM  as  well  as 
improving  the  screen  and  backlight.  It’s  not 
greedy,  either,  lasting  the  average  user  a  month  on  a 
single  pair  of  AA  batteries. 

"ii*  PCW  August  ’99,  p92 


Price  £429. 95  Contact  Psion  0990 143050  w. psion.  com  Also 

Recommended  Hewlett  Packard Jornada  820e  Price  £945.88  Contact  HP 
0990  474747  ♦  3Com  Palm  V  Price  £349. 99  Contact  3Com  0800 
731 1064  (both  PCWJuly  ’99) 


206 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Colour  inkjet 


Hewlett-Packard 

DeskJet  895CXI 


For  all-round  excellence  you  can't 
do  better  than  the  HP  895CXi. 

The  quality  of  its  output  for  both 
text  and  graphics  is  impressive 
given  the  swift  speed  at  which  they 
are  produced.  Even  its  ‘econofast’ 
mode  could  be  used  for  vital 
documents,  saving  both  time 
and  ink.  It  takes  a  huge  range 
of  papers  and  replacing  ink 
cartridges  is  a  breeze. 

PCW October  ’99,  pi 77 


|  Colour  photo  printer^ 

Epson 

Stylus  Photo  750 


Easy  installation,  a  five-colour 
cartridge  for  photo  printing  and 
an  extensive  driver  make  this 
printer  an  attractive  proposition. 

Its  photo  reproduction  could  not 
be  faulted  and  its  job  turnaround 
is  impressively  fast,  too.  Black  text 
on  photocopy  paper  was  a  little 
disappointing,  but  the  price  should 
suit  most  pockets. 

PCW  October  ’99,  pi  80 


Price  £292.58  Contact  HP  0990  474747 Also  Recommended  Epson 
Stylus  Colour  740  Price  £179  Contact  0800  220546  ♦  Epson  Stylus  Colour 
850  Price  £199  Contact  0800  220546  (both  PCW  February  ’99) 


Price  £239  Contact  Epson  0800220  546  www.epson.co.uk 

Also  recommended:  Lexmark  Z5 1  Price  £211.50  Contact  Lexmark  0 1 628 

481500 


Budget  laser  printer 


Kyocera 

FS-680 


In  a  chassis  designed  by 
Porsche,  the  FS-680  is  a 
speedy  little  printer, 
churning  out  9ppm.  It  is 
aimed  at  small 
workgroups  and  you  can 
buy  an  optional  Ethernet 
adaptor  to  include  it  on 
the  network.  It  also  comes 
equipped  with  a  50MHz  PowerPC  processor  and  4Mb  of  RAM, 
upgradable  to  36Mb. 
ini*  PCW  September  ’99  p96 


|  Business  laser  printer 

Hewlett-Packard 

LaserJet  4050TN 

Hewlett-Packard  dominates 
the  laser  printer  market  and 
it's  easy  to  understand  why 
when  you  see  the  output  from 
this  printer.  Its  1,200dpi 
resolution  is  outstanding,  and 
with  a  133MHz  NEC 
processor  and  1 6Mb  of  RAM 
it  can  turn  out  an  impressive 
1 6ppm.  On  top  of  all  that  it 
comes  network  ready. 

PCW  September  ’99  p96 


Price  £351.33  Contact  Kyocera  0345  103104  www.  kyocera.  de 

Also  recommended  SamsungML-5 1 00A  Price  £292.58  Contact  Samsung 

0800  52 1 652  (PCWJuly  ’99  p98) 


Price  £1,580.38  Contact  HP  0990  474747 www.europe.hp.com 

Also  recommended  Lexmark  Optra  K1220  Price  £658  Contact  Lexmark  0 1 628 

481500  (PCW  February  ’99  p20 1 ) 


Multifunction  device 


Hewlett-Packard 


for  incoming  faxes  when  the  paper 
runs  out,  make  the  31 00  an  ideal  multifunction  device. 
PCW  June ’98,  p83 


|  Flatbed  scanner 

Umax 

Astra  61  OP 

Once  again,  the  Umax 
Astra  61  OP  parallel-port 
scanner  has  won  our 
budget  flatbed-scanner 
group  test,  boasting  an 
unbeatable  combination  of 
performance  and  value.  Note 
that  our  three  recommended 
scanners  require  enhanced 
parallel  ports  found  only  on  modern  PCs,  so  users  wanting  top 
performance,  or  those  with  older  systems,  should  stick  to  SCSI. 
PCW  September  ’98,  p229 


Price  £722. 63  Contact  HP  0990  474747 

Also  Recommended  Canon  MultiPASSMPC20  Price  £527.58 

Contact  Canon  0181  773  6000  (PCWJanuary  ’98) 


Price  £69. 33  Contact  Umax  01344871 329  Also  Recommended  Agfa  SnapScan 
31  OP  Price  £116.50  Contact  Agfa  0181 231 4200 ♦  Microtek  Phantom  330CX 
Price  £75. 95  Contact  Microtek  0 1 908  3 1 7797  (both  PCW September’98) 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


[207 


best  buys 


Canon 

Powershot 

Pro70 


This  good-looking 
camera  takes  amazingly 
natural -loo  king  pictures 
and  has  enough  features 
to  keep  any  user  happy. 

Its  dual  Compact  Flash 
slots  make  for  extended 
periods  without  having  to 
download,  while  its  1 ,536  x  1 ,024  pixel  resolution 
will  give  you  superb  prints. 
i»*  PCW May ’99,  pi 99 


|  Monitor  | _ 

cnx 

PR710T 

Not  only  does  the  1 7in 
PR71 0T  look  gorgeous,  its 
performance  is  stunning. 

It  sports  a  genuine  Sony 
Trinitron  tube,  which  is  always 
a  good  sign.  Power  regulation, 
resolution,  colour  alignment 
and  colour  purity  are  all  of 
the  highest  order,  leading  to  a 
display  that  you  can  see  is 
special  straight  away. 

PCW April  >99,  pi 82 


Price  £1,173.83  Contact  Canon  0121  666  6262  Also  Recommended  Ricoh 
RDC-4200  Price  £500  Contact Johnson ’s  Photopia  0 1 782  753355 ♦  Olympus 
C-900Zoom  Price  £650  Contact  Olympus  01 71 253  0513  (both  PCWMay  ’99) 


Price  £276. 13  Contact  CTX01923  810800 

Also  Recommended  ADI  Micro  Scan  GT56  Price  £363.08 

Contact  ADI  0181  327 1900  (PCW April  ’99) 


|  Modem  | 

Pace 

56  Solo 


The  56l<  modem  not  only  performed 
well  in  our  speed  tests,  but  also  has 
some  of  the  best  features  we  have 
seen  on  this  type  of  product.  It  can 
work  as  a  standalone  answering 
machine  and  will  also  store  faxes  when 
your  PC  is  switched  off.  The  memory  is 
upgradable  to  6Mb  and  it  can  even  phone 
you  back  at  a  remote  location. 

PCW  August  '99,  pi  91 


|  Removable  storage  | 

Iomega 

Jaz  2 

Ifyou  need  top  performance  and 
storage  capacity,  then  Iomega's 
2Gb  Jaz  drive  is  the  only 
one  to  go  for.  Its  speed 
makes  it  ideal  for  a  wide 
range  of  applications, 
while  the  Jaz  media  feels 
more  solid  than  most  and  is 
fully  compatible  with  1Gb 
cartridges.  In  short,  it  represents  good 
value  for  large  storage  capacity. 
i»*  PCW  June  ’99,  pi  68 


Price  £1 64.50  Contact  Pace  Communication  UKTel  0990  561001 
Also  Recommended  3Com  Professional  Message  Modem  Price  £149 
Contact  3Com  UK 0800225  252  ♦  Diamond  Multimedia  Supra  Express 
56e  Memory  Price  £99  Contact  Diamond  Multimedia  UK 0118  944  4444 
(both  PCW  August  ’99) 


Price  £299  Contact  Iomega  0800  973 1 94 

Also  Recommended  Panasonic  LF-D 1 01  Price  £351  Contact  Panasonic 
0800  444220  (PCW  Oct  ’98) 


| Sound  card  | _ 

Creative  Labs 

SoundBlaster  Live! 

SoundBlaster  cards  have  long  been 
the  best  choice  for  non-professional 
users.  The  SoundBlaster  Live!  ups 
the  ante,  providing  near¬ 
professional  quality  sound  at  a 
bargain  price.  And  it  comes 
with  an  impressive  bundle 
of  dedicated  digital  I/O 
daughtercard,  speakers, 
subwoofer  and  games. 

!l11*  PCW  December ' 98 ,  p92 


Graphics  card 


ATi 

All  In  Wonder  128 

Using  ATi's  Rage  1 28  chipset,  the  All 
In  Wonder  1 28  provides  the  ultimate 
video  solution  for  your  PC.  Besides 
sporting  a  fast  processor  with  32-bit 
colour  in  2D  and  3D  applications, 
there's  also  motion  compensation 
support  for  smooth  MPEG2  decompression 
and  the  ability  to  capture  video.  But  most 
impressive  is  the  built-in  TV  tuner  that  allows  you  to 
watch  TV  while  you're  word  processing. 

PCW  July ’99,  p78 


Price  £149  Contact  Creative  Labs  01189  344744 
Also  Recommended  Terratec  EWS64  S  Price  £149.23 
Contact  Terratec  0 1 600  772111  (PCWJuly  ’98) 


Price  £146.88  Contact  ATi  01628  533 115  www.  atitech.  com 

Also  Recommended  ATi  Rage  Fury  Price  £123.38  Contact  ATi  01628 
5331 1 5  www.atitech.com  ( PCW  May  ’99 )  ♦  Matrox  Millennium  G400  32Mb 
Max  Price  £1 86.82  Contact  Matrox  01 753  665500  (PCW August ’99) 


261 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Accounting 


Personal  Finance 


Intuit 

Quickbooks  6 


Touted  as  the  easiest 
accounting  package 
for  small  businesses, 
QuickBooks  has  a  long 
history  and  a  large  user 
base.  Version  6  is  the 
first  32-bit  incarnation. 
It  even  monitors 
company  performance 
and  sounds  the  alarm 
should  you  fall  behind, 
mi*  PCW  March  ’99,  p92 


mmM 


?  *  t-  *  J  1  El* 


& _ 

&  it  & 

!=- . 1='  1 1 

Microsoft 

Money  Financial  Suite  99 

Microsoft  Money 
Financial  Suite  99 
is  our  choice  for 
personal  finance.  It 
offers  online  banking 
and  updating 
facilities,  as  well  as 
Sage  compatibility, 
all  at  a  bargain  price. 

"ii*  PCW 
February  ’99,  p80 


Price  £1 99  (Pro  version)  Contact  Intuit  0800  585058  Also  Recommended 
MYOB  Price  £229. 13  Contact  Bestware  01752  201901  ♦  TAS  Books  Price 
£116.33  Contact  Megatech  01372  727274  (  both  PCW  June  ’98) 


Price  £49.99  Contact  Microsoft  0345  002000 

Also  Recommended  Quicken  98  Price  £39.99  Contact  Intuit  01 81  990  5500 
(PCW June  ’98) 


Database 


Microsoft 

Access  2000 


This  industry-standard 
database  application  is 
also  the  best.  With  its 
wizards,  infamous  Office 
Assistants  and  standard 
Windows  interface, 

Access  2000  is  relatively 
easy  for  the  novice.  And 
its  powerful  relational 
features  and  VBA 
integration  make  it  suitable  for  developers,  too. 
"i*  PCW  November  ’98,  p220 


DTP 


1  zMP 


Adobe 

InDesign 

Seamless  integration 
with  PhotoShop  and 
Illustrator,  as  well  as 
multi-line  text 
formatting,  make 
InDesign  a  serious 
contender  to  knock 
QuarkXPress  off  its 
professional  DTP  L 

throne.  Time-saving  features  and  a  competitive  price  make  it  an 
attractive  proposition. 

"ii*  PCW  August  ’99,  p87 


Price  £299  Contact  Microsoft  0345  002000 

Also  Recommended  FileMaker  Pro  4  Price  £169 
Contact  FileMaker  0845  603  9 1 00  (PCW November  ’98) 


Price  £468. 83  (£399  ex  VAT)  Contact  Adobe  0181606  4000 

Also  Recommended  QuarkXPress  4. 0  Price  £816. 62  Contact  Quark 
01483  451818  ( PCW June  ’99)  ♦  Adobe  PageMaker 6. 5 Plus  Price  £35 1.33 
Contact  Adobe  0181606  4000  (PCW August  ’99) 


|  Image  Editing  | _ 

Ulead 

PhotoExpress  2.0 


Ulead  has  succeeded  in 
removing  the  frustration 
factor  often  involved  in 
getting  to  grips  with  digital 
pictures.  PhotoExpress  2.0 
is  a  pleasure  to  use,  with  a 
clearly  structured  interface 
and  fast,  in-depth  tools.  It 
has  pre-set  editing  modes 
for  the  novice  and  custom  adjustments  for  each  editing 
function,  so  the  power  user  will  be  kept  happy,  too. 

"i*  PCW January  ’99,  p202 


|  Drawing  | _ 

Adobe 

Illustrator  8 


Illustrator  has  once  again 
gained  the  top  spot 
amongst  drawing  packages 
through  its  introduction  of 
bold  creative  tools  like  the 
new  Pencil  Tool,  Art  Brushes 
and  the  Gradient  Mesh 
Tool,  to  name  but  a  few. 

If  Adobe’s  new  page  layout  application,  InDesign,  takes  off,  the 
productivity  gains  from  interoperability  between  InDesign, 
Photoshop  and  Illustrator  will  be  hard  to  resist. 

"»*  PCW  September  ’99,  pi  65 


Price  £34.95  Contact  BIT 01 420  8381 1  Also  Recommended  Adobe 
Photo  Deluxe  3  Price  £45. 83  Contact  A  dobe  0181  606 400 1  ♦  PaintShop  Pro  5 
Price  £69. 95  Contact  Digital  Workshop  0 1 295 258335  (both  PCW  January  ’99) 


Price  £257.32  Contact  Adobe  01 81 6064001  www.adobe.com 
Also  Recommended  Corel  Draw  9  Price  £327. 82  Contact  Corel  0800  58 1 028 
♦  Sierra  Windows  Draw  7  Price  £39. 95  Contact  0118  920  9100 
www.sierrahome.com  (both  PCW September  ’99) 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


[209 


best  buys 


|  Information  Managers 

Starfish 

Sidekick  99 

The  best  personal 
information  manager 
boasts  wide 
customisation  abilities 
as  its  greatest 
strength.  However,  if 
you  need  heavyweight 
contact  management, 
look  no  further  than 
Goldmine  4  ( see  the 
details  panel,  below). 

'"'* PCW August ’99,  pi 76 


|  Presentation  Graphics 

Lotus 

Freelance  Graphics 

Lotus’  offering  is  our 
choice  for  electronic 
presentations. 

However,  your 
decision  may  rest  on 
which  office  suite 
you  own  or  are 
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mi*  PCW  March  ’98,  p200 


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"»*  PCW  October  99,  pi  34 


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210 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


/  !  i  AT  1  c 


a  OTT 


contents 


October's  Hands  On  kicks 
off  with  some  advice  for 
those  worried  about 
whether  or  not  their  important 
information  will  still  be  accessible  at 
the  turn  ofthe  century.  Mark 
Whitehorn's  tips  will  help  you  work 
out  the  millennium  issues  in  your 
database,  as  -  with  just  three 
months  left  to  run  -  the  countdown 
to  2000  reaches  boiling  point  [p21 6]. 

With  2000  in  the  air,  it's  also  time 
for  developers  to  start  thinking  about 
how  the  next  version  of 
Windows  will  affect  their  work 
[p256],  and  Tim  Anderson  has  the 
low-down  for  you. 

Away  from  the  desktop,  Mark 
Whitehorn  watches  as  two  PDA 
operating  systems  slug  it  out  and 
declares  one  ofthem  the  winner.  Find 
out  ifit'sWinCE  or  Symbian  [p230]. 

There's  also  the  usual  crop  of 
expert  advice,  tips  and  tricks,  from 
making  more  space  on  your  PC 
[p220]  to  learning  the  latest  in  web 
languages  [p224]. 

As  ever,  if  you  have  any  comments, 
questions  or  suggestions,  feel  free  to 
send  them  direct  to  the  writers,  or 

address  them  to  myself. 

Nigel  Whitfield,  Hands  On  Editor 

nigel_whitfield@vnu.co.uk 


WORKSHOPS 

214  Colour  printing 

Ken  McMahon  takes  the  stress 
out  of  colour  printing  with  his 
in-depth  tutorial  on  how  to  get 
the  best  from  your  machine 

YEAR  2000 

216  Databases 

The  ‘bug’  can  strike  your 
database  anywhere,  but  Mark 
Whitehorn’s  trouble-shooting 
tips  could  save  your  data 

OPERATING  SYSTEMS 

220  Windows 

Further  tips  on  freeing  up  space 
on  drive  C:,  and  Tim  Nott’s  top 
1 0  Windows  tips 

226  WindowsNT 

Andrew  Ward  proposes 
workarounds  to  common  NT 
ailments  and  offers  advice  on  the 
benefits  of  regularly  updating 
your  Repair  Disks 

233  Unix 

The  best  word  processor  on  the 
Unix  platform  has  to  run  the 
Remembrance  Agent,  says  Chris 
Bidmead 

236  OS/2 

Terence  Green  revisits  TCP/IP 
and  other  Warp  networking 
issues 

261  Mac 

The  fastest  peripheral 
connections  achievable  are  here, 
courtesy  of  FireWire.  Cliffjoseph 
looks  over  the  possibilities 

APPLICATIONS 

238  Word  Processing 

Tim  Nott  looks  at  how  to  retain 
your  creative  content  when 
forwarding  your  work  to  others 

240  Spreadsheets 

Why  create  your  own  function 
for  calculating  the  number  of 
working  days  between  two  dates? 
As  Stephen  Wells  explains,  there 
are  pre-defined  functions  in 
spreadsheets,  somewhere! 


242  Databases 

The  size  of  your  data  can  be  a 
headache  for  mobile  use  but  that 
may  not  matter  soon,  as  Mark 
Whitehorn  reveals 

250  Sound 

Steven  Helstrip  gives  you  the  low- 
down  on  MP3s,  but  steers  clear 
ofthe  copyright  issues 

252  Graphics  &  DTP 

Enlarging  bitmapped  graphics 
while  maintaining  the  quality  has 
always  been  a  problem.  Ken 
McMahon  looks  at  how  Vector 
Tracing  can  help 

254  3D  Graphics 

Benjamin  Woolley  explains  how 
understanding  the  art  of 
Cinematography  will  result  in 
better  3D  animations 

PROGRAMMING 

256  Visual  Programming 

Tim  Anderson  on  what  to  expect 
from  Windows  2000 

MISCELLANEOUS 

217  Internet 

In  the  wake  of  Melissa’s 
devastation,  Nigel  Whitfield 
discusses  secure  email  techniques 

224  Web  Development 

Tim  Anderson  discusses  XML 
and  looks  at  the  basics  of  this 
emerging  technology 

230  PDAs 

After  attending  both  the  Symbian 
and  WinCE  developers’ 
conferences,  Mark  Whitehorn 
discovers  the  answer  to  the 
ultimate  question  -  which  PDA 
OS  is  going  to  survive? 

248  Hardware 

Gordon  Laing  discusses  three 
approaches  to  getting  the  best 
out  of  DVD  entertainment  using 
a  PC 

263  Networks 

In  truejames  Bond  style,  Bob 
Walder  covers  key  cryptography 
and  digital  signatures  in  an  effort 
to  maintain  security 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


213 


n 

C  0  j 

1  n 

! _ _ 

wo r  <s  1 

nop:  co 

our 

printers 

Colour  co-ordinated 

Ken  McMahon  takes  you  through  the  dos  and  don’ts  for  getting  the  best  from  your  colour  printer. 


Printing  can  be  a  frustrating 
business.  Getting  any  kind 
of  result  from  some 
printers,  colour  or  mono,  is 
often  such  a  stressful 
experience  that  it’s  tempting  to  live  with 
less  than  perfect  results.  Unintentionally 
cropped  pictures,  landscape  pictures 
printed  on  portrait  paper,  poor-quality 
pictures  suffering  from  bad  pixelation, 
washed  out  colour,  no  colour  at  all  -  the 
list  of  potential  cock-ups  is  lengthy. 

But  it  doesn’t  have  to  be  this  way.  An 
understanding  ofthe  way  your  computer 
and  printer  deal  with  images,  careful 
set-up  of  output  options  and  printer 
driver  settings,  and  a  bit  of  occasional 
maintenance  will  see  your  colour  output 
improve  beyond  measure. 

■  Resolution 

Even  if  you  bought  your  colour  inkjet  for 
serious  business  use,  the  chances  are  it 
won’t  be  long  before  you  get  around  to 
printing  out  a  selection  of  your  favourite 
holiday  snaps,  or  invites  to  your  local 
Lodge’s  apron-embroidery  evening. 

The  first  step  to  producing  crisp, 
sharp  photos  on  your  inkjet,  without 
having  to  wait  all  day  for  them,  is 
understanding  resolution.  All  digital 
images  are  made  up  ofthousands  of  dots 
called  pixels.  Resolution  is  a  measure  of 
the  number  of  pixels  in  an  image,  usually 
expressed  as  dots  per  inch  (dpi)  or  pixels 
per  inch  (ppi). 


resolution  will 
halve,  and  vice 
versa  - 
because  you 
are  spreading 
the  same 
number  of 
pixels  over  a 
larger  area.  By 
increasing  the 
image  size  and 
reducing  the 
resolution,  the 
picture  quality 
gets  worse 
and  worse  -  to 
the  point 
where  you  can 
see  the 

individual  pixels  that  make  up  the  image. 

Your  photo-editing  package  will  have 
a  feature  that  allows  you  to  alter  the 
resolution  and  will  look  something  like 
this  [ Figl  ]  in  Adobe  Photodeluxe. 
Whether  your  photos  were  taken  on  a 
digital  camera,  supplied  on  disc  by  a 
processing  lab,  or  scanned  by  your  own 
fair  hand  this  panel  will  tell  you  the 
overall  image  size  and  the  resolution  in 
pixels  per  inch. 

To  make  the  most  ofthe  capabilities 
of  an  inkjet  your  pictures  need  to  have  a 
resolution  of  around  1 50ppi  at  the  size 
you  are  going  to  print  them.  Often,  you’ll 
find  that  your  pictures  have  a  much 
larger  overall  physical  size  than  you  need, 
but  the  resolution  is  only  72ppi  because 
they  are 
optimised  for 
screen 
display. 

Usually, 
doubling  the 

◄  Fig  2 
Turning  off 
so-called 

PRINT 

ENHANCEMENTS 
IN  THE  PRINTER 
CONTROL  PANEL 
MAY  ACTUALLY 
IMPROVE  IMAGE 
QUALITY 


▲FigI  72ppi  images  optimised  for  screen 

USE  CAN  HAVE  THEIR  RESOLUTION  DOUBLED 
TO  150PPI  -  CHECK  THE  ‘CONSTRAIN  FILE 
SIZE  BOX’  AND  THEIR  SIZE  WILL  HALVE 

resolution  to  1 50ppi  (and,  therefore, 
halving  the  image  size)  is  all  you  need  to 
do.  You  must  make  sure  to  check  the 
‘maintain  file  size’  box  as  otherwise  the 
program  will  add  pixels  by  interpolation 
(making  a  guess  based  on  the  colour 
values  of  adjacent  pixels  and  sticking  new 
pixels  in  the  middle  of  existing  ones). 

Once  this  is  done,  ifthe  image  is  still 
too  big  (at  about  1 8cm  x  6cm  you  can  fit 
two  on  an  A4  page  with  plenty  of 
margin)  you’ll  need  to  make  it  smaller. 
Open  the  size  dialog  box  again  and,  this 
time  with  the  maintain  file  size  box 
unchecked,  type  in  the  required  finished 
size  and  click  OK.  This  time  you’ve 
actually  removed  some  pixels  from  the 
image  to  make  it  smaller  and  your  picture 
is  now  the  required  size  and  resolution 
for  printing. 

Remember,  the  optimum  size  is 
around  1 8cm  x  6cm  at  1  50ppi.  Anything 
less  than  this  and  picture  quality  will 
begin  to  suffer.  Higher  resolutions  will 
not  noticeably  improve  picture  quality, 
but  images  will  take  up  more  space  on 
your  hard  drive,  take  longer  to  display  on 
screen  and  much  longerto  printout. 

■  Output  settings 

Failure  to  make  sure  all  your  output 
settings  are  correct  is  possibly  the  most 


Ifyou  double  the  size  of  an  image  its 


More  Settings 


PrH  Quality  jSuperFine  -  1440dpi  ft 


Media  Jype 


|  Photo  Quality  Ink  Jet  Paper 
Ink 


~3 


Ilf'  Halftoning 


■£*  Color 
r  Black 


Error  Diffusion 


Tl 


e£P  MicroWeay;ex 
f~  Super 
^hSpe|d; 

\~  FJip  Horizontal 

jar  Finest  Retail 


i  Color 


f*"  Color  Adjustment 
Mode 

Brightness 
Contrast 
Saturation 
O  Cyan 
q  ifagefta.- 
G>  f4ldw 

r  PhotoEnhance2 
r  ICM 


OK 


Cancel 


Help 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


214 


irritating  printing  foul-up  of  all.  First 
check  the  paper  size  and  orientation  are 
correct.  Ifyour  application  warns  that 
the  image  will  not  fit  on  the  paper  it’s  a 
fair  bet  that  this  is  the  problem.  Also,  if 
you  have  more  than  one  printer 
connected,  say  a  mono  laser  as  well  as  a 
colour  inkjet  make  sure  you  have  the 
correct  printer  driver  selected. 

Next  make  sure  you  have  the  correct 
settings  for  the  paper  you  are  using. 

Some  printer  drivers,  Epson,  for  example, 
automatically  configure  the  driver  for  the 
type  of  paper  you  have  chosen,  but  you 
still  need  to  make  sure  that  ifyou  are 
using  plain  paper  the  driver  isn’t  set  for 
photo  quality  glossy  film. 

I  n  any  case,  you  may  want  to  override 
some  ofthe  default  settings.  It  pays  to  do 
some  experimentation  and  compare  the 
result  of  different  halftone  and  colour 
adjustment  modes.  In  my  experience,  in 
the  absence  of  a  colour  management 
system,  the  best  results  are  achieved  with 
any  so-called  ‘enhancement’  options 


ySame  picture,  different  resolutions. 
Clockwise  from  top  left  200, 150, 100 
and  50ppi.  Printed  on  an  Epson  Stylus 
Photo  EX.  (image  from  Photodisc: 
World  Landmarks  and  travel) 


SPRUCE  UP  YOUR  DOCUMENTS 


It’s  not  all  about 
pictures,  What  about 
reports,  stationery, 
flyers  or  anything  that 
involves  text,  charts, 
diagrams  and  the  like? 
Here  are  some  design 
pointers  to  help  you 
achieve  maximum 
impact. 

•  Avoid  large  areas  of 
dark  solid  colours  -  use 
a  percentage  tint 
instead. 

•  Create  richer  looking 
blacks  by  mixing  in  30 
per  cent  cyan. 

•  To  avoid  banding, 


don’t  use  graduate  fills 
over  small  areas. 

•  Don’t  colour  type  that 
is  smaller  than  10  point 

•  If  you  do  use  coloured 
text,  use  dark  coloured 
text  (say,  dark  blue,  or 
burgundy)  on  a  light 
coloured  tint  panel  ( say, 
20  per  cent  yellow). 

•  To  make  panels  or 
pictures  abut  the  edge 
of  the  page,  use  a 
smaller  than  A4  page 
size  and  overhang  or 
‘bleed’  the  object  over 
the  edge  of  the  page, 
then  trim  to  the 


finished  size. 

•  If  your  document  has 
a  fold  (say,  A4,  folded  to 
A5),  avoid  printing 
anything  (especially 
solid  colours)  in  the  fold 
area. 

•  If  printing  over  a 
photograph,  choose  an 
area  of  consistent 
highlight  or  shadow 
and  choose  a 
contrasting  type  colour. 
Alternatively  ‘knock 
back’  the  picture  to  a 
tint  (using  your  photo 
editor’s  brightness  and 
contrast,  or  levels). 


(photo-realistic,  more  vivid  colours  etc) 
turned  off  [Fig2]. 

Lastly,  it’s  always  worth  looking  at 
the  print  preview. 

■  Paper  and  cartridges 

There  are  two  important  questions  to  be 
answered  here.  Why  is 
special  paper  for  inkjet 
printers  so  expensive  and 
why  are  inkjet  cartridges 
so  expensive?  The  answer 
to  both  questions  is  they 
needn’t  be.  I’ve  had  no 
trouble  whatever  using 
non-branded  paper  and 
cartridges  in  a  range  of 
Epson  and  Canon  inkjet 
printers  and  feedback 
from  other  users  backs 
this  up. 

Paper,  however,  is 
less  straightforward. 
While  using  non- 
branded  paper  certainly 
won’t  do  any  damage, 
finding  paperthat 
produces  good  results  is 
another  matter. 

Ordinary  photocopy 
paper  (used  on  the  plain- 
paper  setting)  produces 
fair  results,  but  won’t  do 
your  photos  justice 
because  the  printer  can’t 
print  at  it’s  full 
resolution. 


I’ve  tried  various  types  of  coated 
paper  supplied  by  commercial  printers 
(the  smooth  surface  is  achieved  by 
adding  china  clay),  and  none  worked 
satisfactorily.  I  have,  however,  had  perfect 
results  using  specially-coated  inkjet  paper 
from  suppliers  who  advertise  in  PCW  and 
elsewhere.  It’s  available  double-sided 
(most  branded  photo-paper  is  single 
sided)  and  typically  costs  less  than  a 
quarter  ofthe  branded  papers. 

■  Cleaning 

If,  despite  everything  else,  print  quality  is 
still  markedly  less  than  you’d  expect,  the 
trouble  could  be  one  or  more  blocked 
nozzles  on  the  printer.  This  often 
manifests  itself  as  vertical  ink  trails, 
patchy  solid  colours  or  weird  colour 
casts.  It  can  usually  be  cured  by  a  button 
on  the  printer  itself  or  via  a  utility 
application,  accessed  by  selecting  the 
printer’s  control  panel  from  the  Start 
menu,  then  right  clicking  the  printer  icon 
and  selecting  properties. 

Some  manufacturers  also  provide  a 
test  pattern  that  you  can  print  to  check  if 
all  the  nozzles  are  unblocked.  It’s  worth 
printing  this  after  you’ve  performed  the 
cleaning  operation,  as  nozzles  that  were 
blocked  can  remain  so. 

PCW  CONTACTS _ 

Ken  McMahon  welcomes  your  feedback. 

Contact  him  via  the  PCW  editorial 

office ,  or  email graphics@pcw.  co.  uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


215 


(i)2 1  r  Ip 


r  w  i 


lyear  2  0  0 0 : d ata b ases 


Database  dilemmas 

Mark  Whitehom  opens  up  Pandora’s  box  while  checking  on  database  compliancy. 


MONTHS  TO  GO! 


While  it  may  not 

always  be  obvious, 
databases  are  often 
one  of  the  most 
crucial  tools  in 

business.  Assuring  that  millennium 
compliance  has  been  achieved  is 
therefore  essential,  as  there  are  several 
ways  in  which  the  Y2K  problem  can 
threaten  your  database. 

The  ‘bug’  can  strike  at: 

«*~The  hardware. 

«*~The  OS. 

■*-The  RDBMS. 

■*-The  application. 

The  first  two  have  been  covered  already 
in  this  series.  However,  it  is  worth 
remembering  that  many  database 
applications  use  the  current  date  as  a 
default  value  in  one  or  more  fields.  This 
value  is  typically  picked  up  from  the  local 
machine,  so  in  client-server  systems  make 
sure  that  both  the  server  and  all  the 
clients  are  Y2K-compliant. 

■The  RDBMS 

By  now,  the  current  versions  of  all 
mainstream  RDBMSs  should  beY2l<- 
compliant,  so  all  you  have  to  do  is  to 
upgrade  to  the  most  recent  version. 

Yeah,  right!  Back  in  the  real  world, 
upgrading  an  RDBMS  is  often  a  complex 
and  expensive  step,  so  many  sites  run 
several  versions  behind  and  leapfrog 
occasionally  up  the  version  numbers. 

Even  worse,  some  products  allow 
multiple  RDBMS  engines  to  use  shared 
data,  so  it  is  conceivable  that  you  may  be 
running  several  versions  concurrently. 
Given  that  you  may  not  be  able  to 
upgrade  in  time,  check  your  supplier’s 
website  and  you  should  find  information 
about  the  compliance  of  earlier  versions, 
for  example:  www.microsofi.com/technet 
/year2k/product/product.  asp 
Some  companies  may  supply  patches  to 
pull  olderversions  into  compliance 
without  the  need  for  a  full  upgrade. 

■  Date  windows 

We’ll  use  Access  as  an  example  because  it 
is  so  popular.  However,  the  principles 
covered  here  apply  to  other  RDBMSs, 
both  stand-alone  and  client-server. 


A  Microsoft  lists  the 
Year  2000  readiness  Access  has 

of  its  applications  on  always  stored 

its  website  dates  as  date 

values  -  as 

numerical  values  rather  than  strings.  For 
example,  the  value  34,001  stored  in  a 
date  field  equates  to  one  and  only  one 
date  -  1  /2/1  993  -  so  in  that  sense, 

Access  has  always  been  Y2K compliant. 
But  it  isn’t  quite  as  simple  as  that  (it 
never  is)  because  the  way  in  which  Access 
interprets  any  two-digit  date  varies  with 
the  version  of  the  product  you  are  using. 

Access  2000  and  Access  97  use  a  date 
window  to  interpret  dates  entered  in  two- 
digit  format.  This  assumes  that  dates 
between  1/1/00  and  31/12/29  are  in  the 
years  2000  to  2029,  whereas  those 
between  1  /I /30  and  31/1 2/99  are  in  the 
twentieth  century  (ie  from  1 930  to  1 999). 

Access  1 .0,  1 .0a  and  2.0  don’t  use  a 
date  window  at  all:  every  two-digit  date  is 
assumed  to  be  in  the  twentieth  century. 
And  as  for  Access  95...  well,  it  depends 
on  the  version  number  of  a  .dll  file  called 
OLEAUT32.DLL.  If  it  is  2.20.4054  or 
greater,  then  Access  95  displays  one 
behaviour,  ifit  is  lowerthan  2.20.4054  it 
displays  another. 

Both  Office97  and  Windows  NT  may 
have  installed  updates  ofOLEAUT32.DLL 
onto  the  system.  There  isn’t  space  here  to 
detail  all  the  variations,  but  basically  it  is 
a  mess  (and  there  is  nothing  to  suggest 
that  Access  is  any  worse  than  any  other 
RDBMS).  Different  products  handle  this 
differently,  even  those  from  the  same 
company.  You  will  be  delighted  to  know, 


for  example,  that  SQL 
Server  6.5  assumes 
that  values  less  than 
50  are  dates  in  the 
21st  century,  and 
those  greater  than  or 
equal  to  50  are  in  the 
20th.  SQLServer  7.0, 
however,  has  an 
administrator- 
configurable  option 
for  the  date  window. 

Clearly,  one  way 
around  this  problem, 
despite  the  very 
human  desire  to  use 
two-digit  dates,  is  to  force  users  to  enter 
dates  in  four-digit  mode.  Every  version  of 
Access  interprets  these  in  the  same  way. 

■The  application 

Each  database  engine  will  have  its  own 
default  way  of  handling  dates,  but  there  is 
usually  a  database  application  that  sits 
between  the  user  and  the  engine, 
developed  with  some  kind  of  tool 
(perhaps  C++,  VB  or  the  interface  part  of 
Access).  That  application  is  capable  of 
manipulating  the  user  input  data  before  it 
is  sent  to  the  database  engine.  One 
option  is  therefore  to  modify  the  program 
so  it  deals  only  in  four-digit  dates. 

■  Stuck  in  the  nineties 

In  the  early  nineties  there  were  at  least  20 
RDBMS  engines,  many  ofwhich  are  no 
longer  with  us.  But  what  if  you  have  a 
database  application  that  was  developed 
using  one  ofthese? 

«*~You  can  apply  to  a  user  group  (if  in 
existence)  to  see  ifit  has  been  checked  or 
if  patches  are  available. 

■*~You  can  test  it  yourself. 

■*~You  can  upgrade  to  a  newer  product. 

Databases  are  one  ofthe  more 
problematic  areas  forY2l<-  and  the  most 
complex  ones  will  need  a  lot  ofwork. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Contact  Mark  Whitehorn  via  the  PCW 
editorial  office  or  email  database@pcw.co.uk 


216 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


L J 

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The  worm  turns 

Your  email  armour  will  always  have  chinks,  says  Nigel  Whitfield,  but  you  can  boost  its  protection. 


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▲  Net-Tel’s 
TrustedPath  can  help 

STOP  THE  SPREAD  OF 
SELF-EMAILING  WORMS 
AND  VIRUSES 


Email  is  a  critical  part  ofthe 
internet,  but  it’s  also 
becoming  apparent  to  many 
people  that  it  can  be  a 
tremendous  problem.  The 
last  few  months  have  seen  email  move 
from  a  means  by  which  viruses  can  be 
spread  -  and  it’s  never  been  a  good  idea 
to  run  strange  executables,  or 
anonymous  Word  files  -  to  a  core  part  of 
the  virus  writer’s  strategy.  Melissa  and 
Wo  rm.  Exp  I  o  reZip  were  programmed  to 
hook  right  into  the  mail  interface  ofyour 
computer  and  send  themselves  on. 

Viruses  aren’t  the  only  problem  for 

email  users,  though.  It  takes  surprisingly 
little  effort  to  forge  email  on  the  internet 
-  a  fact  that’s  not  lost  on  spammers,  and 
an  alarming  number  of  ISPs  and 
companies  still  have  mail  servers  that  can 
be  used  by  anyone.  One  major  UK  ISP 
suffered  tremendous  problems  recently 
as  a  result  of  a  spam  attack  on  its  servers, 
causing  a  raft  of  complaints  from  its 
users. 

Even  when  a  mail  server’s  been 
secured  against  random  spam,  it’s  still 
very  often  a  trivial  task  to  forge  email  and 
make  it  look  like  it’s  come  from  another 
user  ofthe  same  service.  And  that  means 
there’s  considerable  potential  for 
creating  havoc,  from  simple  malicious 
comments  to  someone  trying  to  pass 
themselves  off  as  you. 

What  can  you  do  about  this?  Wei  I 

there’s  no  single  answer,  but  there  are 
lots  of  different  solutions,  depending  on 
your  situation. 

For 

personal 
users,  who 
want  to 

make  sure  that  can  be  used  by  anyone 

they’re 

immune  from  the  worst  ofthe  email 
worms  and  viruses,  there  are  a  number  of 
things  you  should  do. 

The  facetious  answer  would  be  ‘use 
Unix  ora  Mac,’  since  many  attacks  use 
the  Windows  MAPI  system  to  send 
copies  of  themselves,  or  of  other 


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documents, 
to  people  in 
your  address 
book.  Of 
course,  that’s 

not  a  reasonable  solution  for  some 
people,  but  you  can  take  steps  to  protect 
yourself. 

Firstly,  install  and  keep  up-to-date 
anti-virus  software.  But  don’t  believe  it’ll 
always  spot  problems.  It  won’t  -  as  many 
people  have  recently  found  to  their  cost. 
Always  be  careful  about  file  attachments, 
no  matter  whom  they  appear  to  have 
been  sent  by.  And  'say  no  to  Word  files  or 
executables’  is  a  good  rule  ofthumb. 

There  are  formats  like  RTF  and  SYLK 
that  can  be  used  to  exchange  data 


An  alarming  number  of  ISPs 
and  companies  have  servers 


between 
systems, 
without 
running 
the  same 
risk  that 
macro¬ 
carrying  formats  such  as  MS  Word 
involve. 

You  could  also  do  worse  than 
download  Mail  Guard  TrustedPath;  it’s  a 
plug-in  for  the  Windows  messaging 
system  that’s  free  for  personal  use,  and 
can  be  configured  to  prompt  you  before 


any  mail  is  sent  from  your  system  -  so  a 
worm  orvirus  can’t  mail  things  out 
without  you  being  aware  that  it’s 
happening,  and  having  the  option  of 
stopping  it.  You’ll  find  more  information 
at  www.net-tel.co.uk. 

If  you’re  running  a  company  mail 
server,  then  there  are  more  steps  you  can 
take.  Make  sure  you  don’t  have  an  open 
SMTP  relay,  so  that  people  can’t  send 
spam  via  your  service.  There  are  many 
solutions  depending  on  your  mail 
software;  you’ll  find  some  clues  at 
maps.vix.com/tsi/ar-fix.html,  which 
covers  a  range  of  mail  systems. 

And  ifyou  run  a  mail  system  that 
allows  it,  then  you  should  really  be 
scanning  all  incoming  attachments,  and 
making  sure  they  don’t  contain  anything 
nasty.  Educating  your  users  about  what 
types  of  attachment  they  should  use  is 
important  too. 

When  it  comes  to  the  other  problem 

-  authentication  -  there’s  little  chance  of 
all  the  internet’s  servers  changing  swiftly 
to  a  standard  that  allows  proper 
verification  ofwho’s  sending  a  message. 

That  means  that  ifyou  do  want  to  be 
absolutely  sure  ofthe  identity  of  people, 
you  need  to  use  something  that  works 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


217 


hands-on 

internet 


Questions 


oc  answers 


QIn  my  email  program, 
I  have  the  option  of 
using  IMAP  or  POP3  to 
retrieve  messages.  What  is 
the  difference,  and  which 
one  should  I  be  asking  my 
ISP  for? 


a 


The  simple  answer  is 
that  your  ISP  probably 
won’t  give  you  a  choice  —  it’s 
likely  to  be  POP3  or  nothing, 
unless  you  have  a  very 
specialised  service.  POP3  is 
designed  for  retrieving 
messages  and  transferring  them 
to  a  different  computer.  There 
are  some  options  that  some 
servers  offer  for  sending  mail 
via  POP  too,  but  you  don’t  find 
them  very  often.  IMAP,  by 
contrast,  can  do  an  awful  lot 
more.  You  can  use  it  in  much 
the  same  way  as  POP3, 
retrieving  your  email  from  a 
remote  server,  but  it  will  also 
support  lots  of  other  features. 
For  example,  IMAP  allows  you 
to  have  folders  of  messages  on 
the  server,  and  it  gives  you 
much  more  flexibility  over 
handling  attachments.  There 
are  even  options  for 
synchronising  messages 


►  By  using  Regedit  to  point  to 

THE  URL  OF  YOUR  CHOICE  YOU 
CAN  PICK  THE  SEARCH  PAGE  YOU 
WANT  TO  GO  TO 


between  a  remote  mailbox  and 
one  on  the  server. All  that, 
however,  is  more  than  most 
ISPs  offer  -  in  fact,  I  can’t 
think  of  any  that  do  offer  IMAP 
as  standard.  So  while  your  mail 
program  gives  you  a  choice,  it’s 
unlikely  that,  outside  of  a 
corporate  network,  you’ll  get 
the  opportunity  to  choose 
anything  other  than  POP3. 

Is  there  a  way  to 
customise  the  search 
button  in  Internet  Explorer 
version  4  &  5?  I  work  mainly 
on  the  lab  intranet  and  need 
to  set  it  up  so  that  the  search 
button  accesses  our  intranet 
Webserver's  search  page 
rather  than  Microsoft's 
search  page.  This  was  simple 
in  version  3,  but  I  am  unable 
to  locate  the  setting  since 
version  4. 


a 


Yes,  it’s  a  fairly  simple 
thing  to  do,  though  not 
as  straightforward  as  in  other 
versions.  You’ll  need  to  edit  the 
Registry,  using  Regedit,  and 
change  the  Search  Page  entry. 


-r*- 

w  r»  - 


if1 


which  you’ll  find  under 
HKEY_CURRENT 
_USER\Software  \Microsoft\ln 
ternet  Explorer\Main.  Set  it  to 
the  URL  of  the  page  you  want 
to  use  to  search.  As  ever,  be 
careful  when  editing  the 
registry  and  don’t  do  it  if  you’re 
at  all  unsure.  Presumably 
burying  a  useful  option  like  this 
in  an  inaccessible  place  is 
simply  a  part  of  the  ‘ usability ’ 
improvements  brought  to  us  by 
the  latest  versions  of  the  web 
browsers. 

When  we  use  our 
email  system  at  work, 
most  people  use  the  full 
address  which,  as  you  can 
see  ends  up  being  quite 
long!  I  use  just  the  user 
name  and  host  name  which 
seems  to  work  fine,  for 
example  boss@mril  or 


network@central.  How  far 
does  this  go?  Could  I  email 
other  NHS  Trusts  using 
john@accounts.CBHT 
rather  than  john@accounts. 
CBHT.nhs.uk 


a 


I’m  afraid  you  probably 
can’t  go  any  further 
than  your  local  organisation  — 
though  it  will  depend  to  some 
extent  on  how  your  mail  and 
domain  lookup  systems  are 
configured.  But  as  a  general 
rule  of  thumb,  when  the  system 
looks  up  an  address,  if  there’s 
no  fullstop  in  the  hostname,  it 
will  be  assumed  to  be  a  local 
one,  and  the  local  domain  will 
be  added  to  the  end.  If  there  is 
a  full  stop,  it  will  be  assumed  to 
be  a  Fully  Qualified  Domain 
Name  (or  FQDN),  and  verified 
against  the  main  internet 
database  as  such. 


with  ordinary  email.  At  the  moment,  the 
best  solution  to  this  problem  is  probably 
PGP  -  Pretty  Good  Privacy- which  allows 
you  to  digitally  sign  messages  so  that 
recipients,  if  they' re  using  the  same 
software,  can  verify  that  it’s  you.  You  can 
download  a  shareware  version  of  PGP  for 
a  variety  of  systems  at  www.pgpi.com. 

There  are  also  other  ways  of  verifying 
who  you  are,  using  digital  certificates, 
such  as  the  ones  issued  by  BTTrustwise 
at  www.trustwise.com. 

To  use  all  this  technology,  you'll  need 
a  decent  email  program  -  one  that’s 
capable  of  accepting  attachments  easily. 
And  ifyou  download  PGP,  you'll  find 


that  there  are  plug-ins  for  popular 
programs  like  Eudora,  so  that  you  can 
sign  a  message  just  with  a  couple  of 
mouse  clicks. 

You  might  balk  at  the  idea  of  moving 
to  a  different  email  program,  especially 
if,  like  me,  you  have  thousands  of  old 
messages  archived.  But,  as  the  recent 
problems  with  Melissa  et  al  have  shown, 
while  email  may  be  the  bread  and  butter 
ofthe  Internet  for  many  people,  it’s  really 
not  something  you  can  take  for  granted. 

Make  sure  the  program  you  use  is 
secure  and  reliable.  Update  your  virus 
programs,  and  start  to  use  digital 
signatures.  And  encourage  other  people 
to  do  the  same. 


The  latest  worm  pretended  to  be  a 
reply  to  a  recent  message  that  email 
correspondents  had  sent  to  you.  You  can 
never  be  1 00  per  cent  safe,  but  ifyou’re 
cautious  about  attachments,  keep  virus 
programs  up  to  date,  and  only  accept 
files  from  people  who’ve  signed  their 
messages,  you  stand  a  much  better 
chance  of  staying  safe.  Don’t  just  rely  on 
being  lucky. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Nigel  Whitfield  welcomes  your  feedback  on 
the  Internet  column.  Contact  him  via  the 
PCW  editorial  office  or  email 

internet@pcw.  co.  uk 


218 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


■"I 


n 


1 1  n 


windows 


Spaced  out 


Tim  Nott  says  partitioning 
may  keep  volatile  files  away 
from  the  others  but  it  also 
saves  space  on  the  C:  drive. 

Last  month  we  looked  at 

partitioning,  with  a  view  to 
segregating  various  types  of 
static  and  volatile  data  on 
your  hard  disk  -  in  particular 
changing  the  location  of  the  swapfile  and 
temp  folder.  There’s  much  more  you  can 
move,  which  may  also  help  you  free  up 
space  on  drive  C:,  should  this  be  an  issue. 
A  prime  candidate  for  relocation  is  the 
Temporary  Internet  Files  folder,  which  is 
the  Internet  Explorer’s  cache  for  web 
pages.  Moving  this  in  IE5  is  easy  -  right- 
click  on  the  IE  desktop  icon  (or  go  to 
Tools,  Options  on  the  IE  menu).  On  the 
General  tab  you’ll  find  a  Settings  button: 
this  leads  to  another  dialog,  which  has 
what  we  are  looking  for  -  a  button 
labelled  'Move  Folder’. 

There  are  other  special  folders  you  can 
move  with  the  aid  ofTweakU  I .  With  the 
Windows  95  version,  you  can  move  the 
Desktop,  My  Documents,  Document 
Templates,  Favorites,  and  Send  To 
folders.  You  can  also  relocate  the  Start 
Menu,  and  independently  move 
components  of  the  latter  such  as 
Programs,  Recent  Documents  and 


Settings 


?  I  X 


Check  for  newer  versions  of  stored  pages: 
C~  Every  visit  to  the  page 
f  Every  time  you  start  Internet  Explorer 
(*  Automatically 
Never 


T emporary  Internet  files  folder 


Current  location: C:\WINDOWS\T emporary  Internet  Files\ 


Amount  of  disk  space  to  use: 

■h— - 


I 


MB 


Move  Folder... 


A  YOU  CAN  TELL 

Windows  where  to 

STICK  ITS  TEMPORARY 

Internet  files 


Mouse 


General  |  Explorer  |  IE4  |  Desktop]  My  Computer 


Effects 


^  Window  animation 
Smooth  scrolling 
v'  Beep  on  errors 


Special  Folders 

Folder: 

Location: 

|  Common  Program  Files  ▼  |  Change  Location  | 

Desktop 

Document  Templates 
Favorites 

My  Documents 

Program  Files 

Programs 

Recent  Documents 

Send  To 

Start  Menu 

Startup 

;s 

internet  Ex| 
Select  the 
the  Interne 

Search  ent 

keyword  keyword"  in 

”3 

OK 

Cancel 

lilll 

StartUp.  The 
Windows  98 
version  adds 

Program  Files  and  Common  Program 
Files.  These  locations  -  and  others  such 
as  History  -  are  stored  in 
the  Registry,  under  HKCU 
\Software  \Microsoft 
\Windows  \Current  Version 
\Explorer  \Shell  Folders,  but 
please  note  I  have  not 

experimented 
with  editing 

these  directly.  I  suspect  that 
there  may  be  good  reasons 
for  not  tampering  with  the 
locations  omitted  from 
TweakUI.  If  you  want  to  try 
doing  so,  then  on  your  own 
head  be  it:  the  usual 
backup  caveats  apply. 

Although  moving 
components  off  the  Start 
Menu  or  Send  To  folder 
may  seem  rather  trivial,  the 
ability  to  move  the  Program 
Files  and  Common 
Program  Files  folders  is 
extremely  useful.  As  I 

<  Specify  folder 
LOCATIONS  WITH  WlN  98 
TweakUI 


mentioned  last 
month,  my 
preference  is  to 
keep 

applications  on  a 
separate 
partition,  and  as 
space  on  C: 
always  seems  to 
be  tight  I  resist 
any  attempts  by 
installation 
routines  to  place 
programs  here.  I 
have  come 
across  some 
badly-designed 
installations  that 
insist  on  being 
located  in 
C:\Program 

_  Files.  I’ve  come 

across  games 

that  try  to  re-install  every  time  you  insert 
the  CD  as  the  Autorun  routine  looks  in 
Program  Files  and  'thinks’  it  hasn’t  been 
installed.  Suffice  it  to  say  none  ofthese 
stay  on  my  hard  disk  for  long,  but  I  think 
if  I  were 

Some  badly-designed 
installations  insist  on 


View  Files... 


View  Objects... 


OK 


Cancel 


d 


setting  up 
again  from 
scratch,  I’d 
move  the 
Program  Files 
folder  to  my 
Applications 
partition  and  save  myself  the  grief. 


being  located  in  C: 
\Program  Files 


One  excellent  feature  is  the  'My 

Documents’  folder,  which  made  its  debut 
with  Office  95  but  is  now  part  of 
Windows  98.  It  can  serve  as  a  top-level 
container  for  all  your  type-two  files  -  i.e. 
those  you  create  in  applications  -  as  well 
as  templates,  user-defined  dictionaries 
and  other  data  you  may  want  to  backup 
on  a  regular  basis.  Note  that  under 
Windows  98  you  can  not  only  rename 
the  desktop  icon  itself,  but  can  also  point 
it  at  any  folder  on  your  system,  by  right- 
clicking  and  selecting  Properties. 
However,  you  should  think  very  carefully 
before  doing  this  -  should  you  decide  to 
change  or  rename  the  target  folder  you 
may  also  have  to  spend  a  lot  oftime 
changing  application  settings,  template 
references  in  documents  and  so  on.  I’ve 


2201 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


shut 


long  kept  my  data  files  in  a  folder 
(or  directory  as  we  used  to  say 
back  then)  called  'Words’,  as  this 
is  what  it  mostly  consists  of,  and 
for  the  sake  of  consistency,  I’ve 
renamed  the  'My  Documents’ 
icon  to  'Words’  as  well.  The 
renaming  affects  both  the 
desktop  and  Explorer  icon,  but 
you  will  still  see  the  odd  reference 
to  'My  Documents’  cropping  up 
in  Windows  -  usually  these  can’t 
be  changed  as  they  are  part  of 
hard-coded  system  messages. 

The  Windows  applets  (and 
MS  Office)  automatically  start  a 
File  Save/Open  in  the  My 
Documents  folder,  and  any 
applications  you  subsequently 
install  should  be  set  up  to 
load/save  files  in  an  appropriate 
subfolder.  Most  recent 
applications  do  this  without 
protest  -  older  ones  might  still 
want  to  default  to  a  sub-folder  of 
their  own  installation.  Howyou 
organise  the  data  below  is  up  to 
you.  You  may  prefer  to  classify 
first  by  application  -  with  second  level 
folders  for  WP,  spreadsheets,  drawings, 
bitmaps,  DTP  and  so  on.  Or  you  may 
prefer  to  classify  by  purpose  or  project.  I 
tend  to  do  a  bit  of  both.  If  I’m  doing  a 
project,  such  as  a  group  test  for  PCW, 
for  example,  I’ll  create  a  new  folder  for  it 
in  'Words\PCW’,  which  will  have  the  text 
as  a  Word  document,  a  comparison 
table  in  Excel,  screenshots  in  TIFF  or  GIF 
and  maybe  a  text  file  or  two.  I’ll  also  put 
a  shortcut  to  this  folder  in  the 
QuickLaunch  toolbar,  or  on  the 
Desktop.  Other  things,  such  as  Corel 
Draw  artwork  and  CAD  technical 
drawings  I  store  by  application,  but 
again  under  a  subfolder  of 'Words’.  By 
diligent  struggling  with  Microsoft  Word, 

I  can  get  it  to  store  my  templates  and 
user  dictionaries  in  another  subfolder, 
which  is  another  step  towards  one-stop 
back-up. 

Finally,  it  makes  good  sense  (where 
possible)  to  avoid  having  lots  of 
subfolders  and  files  in  the  same  folder.  If 
you  have,  say,  many  subfolders  under 
'Documents\Letters’,  it  makes  sense  to 
create  a  'Misc’  subfolder  to  contain 
those  that  don’t  fit  into  any  particular 
category,  rather  than  stick  them  straight 
into  'Letters’  -  you  won’t  then  have  to 
scroll  down  past  a  heap  of  folders  to 
open  them. 


Internet  Explorer 


Endows  Explorer 


Explore 

Printers 

New  Office  Document 
Open  Office  Document 
Windows  Update 
Reference 


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^  Documents 
Jjjj  Settings 
^  Find 
ii&P  Help 
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Add/Remove  Programs 
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Data  Links 
Date/'T  ime 
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Internet  Options 

Keyboard 

Mail 

Modems 

Mouse 

Multimedia 

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Passwords 

Power  Management 

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3  The  Send 
To  folder  - 

adding  Control  Panel  an  essential. 

Create  shortcuts 
to  folders  and  programs  in  here 
(C:\Windows\Send  To...)  and  you’ll  save 
lots  oftime  copying  files  to  frequently 
used  folders  or  opening  them  in  a  non- 
associated  application. 

4 Control  Panel  -  why  not  have  this 
as  a  cascading  menu  from  the  Start 
Menu?  Open  the  Start  Menu  and  create 
a  new  folder.  Give  this  the  name  'Control 
Panel. {21  EC2020-3AEA-1 069-A2DD- 
08002B30309D}’  excluding  the  quotes. 
The  long  extension  will  hide  itself. 

5  Dragging  and  dropping  files  -  do 
you  know  which  modifiers  copy, 
move  or  create  a  shortcut  and  which  is 
the  default  in  all  combinations  offile 
type,  source  and  destination?  No  -  well 
neither  do  I.  Instead,  just  right-drag  and 
choose  from  the  context  menu  that 
appears  when  you  drop. 

6  Customise  your  drive  icons  in  My 
Computer  and  Explorer.  While  in 
Notepad  type: 


Save  in: 


|  F-’J  F'cw~ 


■  Damn  -  missed! 

What  goes  around  comes  around,  and 
recently  I’ve  had  a  lot  of  mail  either 
suggesting  tips  that  have  already 
appeared  in  this  column  or  requesting 
repeats.  So,  I  thought  we  could  celebrate 
the  50th  Hands 
On  Windows 
95/98  column 
with  a  top  ten 
of  golden 
oldies. 

Unfortunately  I 
missed  the  boat 
-  as  this  is  the 
52nd.  But  here 
they  are 
anyway:  thank 
you  all  for  your 
suggestions  and 
requests. 


replacing  the  text  to  the  right  of  the 
equals  sign  with  a  real  path  and  file 
name.  Save  this  as  AUTORUN. INF  in  the 
root  of  the  drive. 

7  Create  new  folders  on  the  fly  when 
saving  files.  The  little  icon  of  a  folder 

mxi 

T  ml  M  &\  lam 


_ liBusgraphj 

DCa'd . 

Q  CD  stuff 
2d  Column 
2]  Corel  vs  Freehand 
I  Drawing 

_ 


LJ  Dtp 

23  Graphics 

□  Hands  On  3.1 

CD  Hands  On  95 

l22l  Hands  On  Word  Processing 

2~l  Misc 


J 


Create  New  Folder 


S  horts  — 

□  Suites 
l22l  Swap  Shop 
D  T  echnobabblf 
2d  Windows  98 


File  name: 


|autorun.inf 

Save 

|  T  ext  D  ccuments 

Cancel 

A 


Clicking  on 


±New  folders 

CAN  BE  CREATED 
WHEN  SAVING 

I  column 

headings  in  Explorer’s  details  view  (e.g. 
date,  size),  sorts  the  files  by  that  column. 
A  second  click  reverses  the  order. 

2  You  can  drag  files  into  DOS 
windows,  rather  than  type  their 
names.  Note  that  you  must  also  click  in 
the  box  afterwards  to  get  the  'focus’  for 
typing  commands. 


with  a  star  at  one  corner  in  the  standard 
Open/Save  dialog  does  exactly  that. 

8  When  browsing  through  nested 
folders,  you  can  choose  whether  to 
open  them  in  the  same,  ora  new 
window,  from  View,  Options  (Windows 
95)  or  View,  Folder  Options,  Custom, 
Settings  (Windows  98  or  95  +  IE4).  To 
get  the  best  of  both  worlds,  hold  down 
the  Control  key  as  you  open  folders  or  go 
back  up:  this  reverses  the  default  setting. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


221 


fll 


u 


<%  Li  1 


A 


w i  n  d  o  ws 


9  On  a  related  note,  pressing  Shift 
while  closing  a  folder  will  also  close 
all  its  ancestors. 

If  you  hold  down  the  shift  key 
while  restarting  from  the  ‘Shut 
Down  Windows’  box,  the  system  will  just 
reload  Windows,  rather  than  rebooting 
the  PC. 


■  Whoops! 

Ifyou  are  having  difficulty  getting 
August’s  wallpaper-stretching  trick  to 
work  (which  some  ofyou  obviously  are), 
right-click  on  the  desktop,  select  Active 
Desktop,  and  untick  View  as  Web  page’. 

Further  to  the  answer  to  Rohan 


Shenoy’s  question  in  August’s  Windows 
column,  about  creating  right-click  menu 
actions  for  all  file  types,  there  is  an  easy 
way.  Look  no  further  than  Andrew 
Ward’s  Hands  On  NT  column  forjuly- 
‘Open  with  Notepad’  -  which  works  with 
Windows  9x  as  well.  Thanks  to  several 
readers  for  pointing  this  out. 


Questions 


n 


&  answers 


QHow  can  I  start  Internet 
Explorer  without 
connecting  to  the  internet? 
Although  I  do  use  the 
internet,  I  often  use  IE  to 
view  HTML  documents  on 
my  hard  drive.  Right-click, 
Open,  on  the  IE5  desktop 
icon  seems  to  do  exactly  the 
same  as  right-click,  Open 
Home  Page,  and  it’s  a  drag  to 
have  to  cancel  the 
connection  then  choose 
‘Work  Offline’. 

Colin  Green 


a 


You  can  set  your  home 
page  as  blank  or  as  a 
local  file  from  General  tab  of 
the  Internet  Explorer  icon 
properties.  But  ifyou  want  to 
keep  your  home  page,  the 
simplest  is  to  create  a  blank 
text  file  on  the  Desktop  and 


Notepad  Properties 


General  Shortcut  | 

/  /  Notepad 


rename  it  with  the  .HTM 
extension.  Double-click  on  this 
and  it  will  load  in  Internet 
Explorer,  without  activating  a 
dial-up  connection. 

Ql’m  a  keyboard  fan  and 
have  set  up  various 
shortcuts  on  my  desktop 
with  keyboard  shortcuts.  I 
wanted  to  assign  other 
shortcuts  to  folders  without 
cluttering  up  my  desktop,  so 
I  created  a  folder  in  my 
Windows  directory,  and 
created  the  others  in  there. 
Unfortunately  none  of  the 
key  shortcuts  that  I’ve  put 
here  work,  although  the 
ones  on  the  desktop  still 
work  fine. 

Rajnish  Bhaskar 


a 


This  is,  as  they  say,  by 
design.  Shortcut  key 


T  arget  type:  Application 

Targetlocation:  WINDOWS 

Jarget: 


Start  in: 


S  hortcut  key:  |  Ctrl  +  Alt  +  H 
Run:  [Normal  window 


combinations  only  work  for 
shortcuts  that  are  on  the 
desktop  or  in  the  Start  Menu 

hierarchy.  If 
you  Explore 
the  Start 
Menu, 
you’ll  find 
you  can 
right-click 
on  the 
shortcuts 
therein, 
choose 
properties 
and  assign 
key  strokes. 


Find  Target... 


Close  1 

Cancel 

- 1 

<  Keyboard 

SHORTCUTS  ARE 
Change  USEFUL  -  BUT  THEY 
ONLY  WORK  FOR  THE 

Desktop  or  Start 
Menu 


Q  Recently  my  PC  has 
started  presenting  me 
with  the  DOS-style  boot 
menu  every  time  I  switch  on. 
How  do  I  return  to  the 
default  of  only  seeing  this  if  I 
press  F8? 

Jill  Deakin 


a 


The  easy  way  is  from 
Tweak  ill’s  Boot  page  - 
untick  ‘ Always  show  boot 
menu’.  Ifyou  don’t  have 
TweakUl  (it’s  on  the  Windows 
98  CD-ROM  under 
Tools\Reskit\Powertoy),  then 
you  need  to  edit  the  file 
C:\MSDOS.SYS.  See  last 
month’s  Q  and  A  for  details  - 
the  line  to  change  is 
Bootmenu=  1,  which  should  be 
changed  to  Bootmenu=0. 

Q  Whatever  happened  to 
the  Windows  95  ‘Send 
to  any  folder’  PowerToy.  It 
doesn’t  seem  to  be  available 
in  Windows  98  —  is  it  hiding 
elsewhere?  It  was  a  very 
useful  accessory. 

Alan  Wooley 


a 


There  doesn’t  appear  to 
be  a  Win  98  version  of 
this,  but  the  good  news  is  that 
the  Win  95  one  appears  to 
work  fine. 

QI  copied  the  Windows 
98  setup  files  from  the 
CD-ROM  to  a  partition  on 
my  hard  disk,  and  now  the 
PC  thinks  my  E:  drive  is  a  CD 
-  it  runs  the  Setup  program 
every  time  I  click  on  it. 

Mike  Elder 


Sounds  as  ifyou ’ve 
copied  the  Autorun. inf 
file  as  well  —  delete  this  from 


a 


the  root  of  E:  and  everything 
should  go  back  to  normal.  You 
may  also  be  wasting  a  lot  of 
space  -  as  there’s  a  lot  of 
surplus  baggage  in  the 
Cdsample  folder,  such  as  200 
megabytes  of  video  and  sound 
advertisements.  Simply  copying 
the  WIN98  folder  off  the  CD 
should  suffice. 

QI  search  every  month 
for  all  files  that  end 
with  *.TMP.  Last  time  I 
found  in  the  Windows  folder 
390  TMP  files  that  have 
filenames  of  the  form: 
ffef585_{8E246A60-FB  12- 
11D2-85EC- 

D7A2EEDD4A0D}.tmp.  The 
files  are  empty  (I  opened 
them  with  Notepad,  and 
they  are  Okb).  Is  it  safe  to 
delete  all  these  files,  and 
what  are  they? 

Salar  al  Khafaji 


a 


I  was  as  puzzled  as  you 
when  I  discovered  that  I, 
too,  had  a  collection  of  these. 
The  middle  part  of  the  file  name 
looks  like  a  Class  ID  as  seen  in 
the  registry,  but  I  couldn’t  find 
any  matches.  Examination  of 
the  file  properties  showed  that 
they  seemed  to  be  created  in 
pairs,  at  boot  time.  The  culprit 
appears  to  be  the  Machine 
Debug  Manager  loading  at 
start-up  —  this  is  a  utility  that 
comes  with  certain  Microsoft 
development  tools.  I’ve  deleted 
mine,  and  lived  to  tell  the  tale. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Tim  Nott  welcomesyour  feedback 
on  the  Windows  column. 

Contact  him  via  the  PCW 
editorial  office,  or  email 
win@pcw.co.uk 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


222 


‘I 


n 


i 

n 

C 

<  0 

jM _ 

we  1 

b  d 

eve 

o  p  m  e  n  t 

Marked-up  for  death 

With  advances  in  XML  and  the  introduction  of  XSL,  Tim  Anderson  asks  can  HTML  survive? 


There  are  several  reasons 
why  you  need  to  know 
about  XML  (extensible 
Mark-up  Language).  The 
first  is  that  HTML  is 

straining  at  the  seams.  Instead  of  hunting 
for  the  tag  you  need,  and  then  checking 
which  browsers  and  browser  versions 
support  it,  why  not  define  your  own  tag? 
This  is  whatXML  lets  you  do. 

Secondly,  XML  has  every  chance  of 
becoming  the  standard  means  of 
exchanging  data,  particularly  across 
platform  boundaries  or  over  the  Web. 

The  great  attraction  of  this  approach  is 
that  it  is  both  simple  and  robust.  Take 
two  applications  that  are  able  to 
generate  and  parse  XML,  add  a  means  of 
transporting  the  XML  data,  and  you  have 
the  essential  ingredients  of  a  distributed 


application.  And  last  but  not 
least,  XM  Lisa  great  way  to 
handle  documents. 


EMI  ►  -I--'.  LHC 

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i lal  ilia. 

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^CHJLT? 


[FIG  1] 


A  simple  XML  document 

<?xml  version="1 .0"?> 

<! DOCTYPE  CDLIST  [ 

< ! ELEMENT  CDLIST  (INTRO, CD*)> 

< ! ELEMENT  INTRO  (#PCDATA)> 

< ! ELEMENT  CD  (TITLE,  ARTIST, LABEL, PLAYTIME)> 
< ! ATTLI ST  CD  TYPE  (SingLe| FuLL)  #REQUI RED> 
< ! ELEMENT  TITLE  (#PCDATA)> 

< ! ELEMENT  ARTIST  (#PCDATA)> 

< ! ELEMENT  LABEL  (#PCDATA)> 

< ! ELEMENT  PLAYTIME  (#PCDATA)> 

]> 

<CDLIST> 

<INTR0> 

Get  thi  s  great  musi c . 

</  INTR0> 

<CD  TYPE  =  "S i  ng le"> 

<TITLE>I&apos;m  afraid  of  Ameri cans</TITLE> 
<ARTIST>Davi  d  Bowi e</ARTIST> 
<LABEL>EMI</LABEL> 

<PLAYTIME>5:28</PLAYTIME> 

</CD> 

<CD  TYPE  =  " Fu 1 1 "> 

<TITLE>Bury  the  Hatchet</TITLE> 

<ART I ST>The  Cranberries</ARTIST> 
<LABEL>Island</LABEL> 

<PLAYTIME>57 :32</PLAYTIME> 

</CD> 

</ CDLIST> 


An  XML  document  is 
intelligent  about  its  content, 
far  more  so  than  HTML.  For 
example,  in  an  HTML 
document  you  can  tell  what  is 
body  text,  what  is  a  list,  and 
various  levels  of  headings, 
although  on  a  typical  web 
page  this  scheme  is  likely  to 
be  subverted  by  the 
practicalities  ofweb  design. 

There  may  be  body  text  in 

table  cells,  or  headings  might  not  use  the 

built-in  heading  levels. 

By  contrast,  an  XML  document  can 
be  much  easierto  understand.  For 
example,  a  mark-up  for  a 
Hands  On  column  could 
explain  the  different  elements 
ofthe  article,  with  text 
marked  as  key  points,  code 
examples,  readers’  questions, 
picture  captions  and  so  on. 

XMLcan  also  include 
databases  with  records  and 
fields,  as  well  as  separating 
structure,  content  and 
presentation.  Documents  can 
be  transformed,  either  by 
processing  or  by  use  ofXSL 
(Extensible  Stylesheet 
Language).  Transformation 
can  take  place  either  on  the 
client  or  the  server,  so  that  you 
can  use  XML  server-side  while 
still  presenting  plain  HTMLto 
browsers. 

You  may  wonder  whether 
XML  will  replace  HTML.  The 
answer  is  'sort  of’.  Nobody  is 
planning  to  discard  all  the 
work  that  makes  HTML  a  fine 
general-purpose  mark-up 
language.  Instead,  HTMLwill 
eventually  become  an  XML 
language.  One  implication  is 
that  web  authors  will  need  to 
tighten  up  their  code,  as  XML 
is  less  forgiving  about  errors 
such  as  omitting  closing  tags. 


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'Ll-lr  P-inr 

■  VPN 

TlAYm*  ■ 

-  cCD  TrPE-TiJI  ■ 

Ihr*  lln  HUlPimT 

*■  "ICr  TTib  □mbintn  MB' M'"* 

■  I-.LiibI 


▲  Fig  2  Raw 
XML  DISPLAYED 
by  Internet 

■  An  eXaMpLe  Explorer  S 

Despite  its  name,  XML 
is  not  itself  a  mark-up  language  but  a 
way  of  implementing  mark-up 
languages.  Fig  1  shows  a  simple  example 
of  an  XML  document.  This  is  a 
standalone  document,  which  means  it  is 
fully  self-describing.  It  begins  with  the 
XML  declaration: 

<?xm L  versi on  =  "1  .0"?> 
which  identifies  this  XML.  What  follows 
is  in  two  distinct  parts. 

First,  there  is  the  DTD  (Document 
Type  Definition).  This  defines  the  mark¬ 
up  language,  which  in  this  case  is  for 
creating  lists  of  compact  discs.  More 
commonly,  the  DTD  would  be  in  a 
separate  file  referenced  by  its  URL,  but 
here  it  is  included  in  full. 

The  DTD  begins  by  naming  the 
DOCTYPE,  and  then  gives  a  list  of 
elements  -  in  other  words,  blocks  of 
content  -  that  are  valid  for  this  type  of 
document.  XML  documents  can  have 
only  one  root  element,  which  in  this  case 
is  CDLIST. 

The  CDLIST  element  consists  of  one 
and  only  one  INTRO  followed  by  any 
number  ofCD  elements  -  this  is  the 
meaning  of  (INTRO,  CD*).  The  asterisk 
indicates  the  element  may  exist  none  or 
many  times.  The  CD  element  has  aTYPE 
attribute,  which  must  be  Single  or  Full, 
like  an  enumerated  type,  followed  by 
several  elements  that  describe  each  CD. 
Each  element  resolves  down  to 
#PCDATA,  which  means  character  data. 

The  second  part  ofthe  document  is 


224 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


[FIG  3] 


content  -  tagged 
according  to  the 
rules  ofthe  DTD.  If 
you  are  familiar 
with  HTML  tags,  it 
is  easy  to  follow. 

Note  that  XML  tags 
are  case-sensitive. 

The  whole  content 
is  enclosed  in  an 
opening  and 
closing  CDLIST  tag, 
within  which  are  a 
single  INTRO 
element  and  two 
CD  elements,  as 
allowed  by  the 
DTD. 

Ifyou  open  the 
file  in  Internet 
Explorer  5, 
currently  the  only 
browser  that 
supports  XML,  you 
will  see  it  structured 
as  in  Fig  2.  Note 
that  IE  does  not 
fully  validate  the 
XMLwhen  it 
displays,  although 
it  will  complain 
about  some  errors. 

A  handy  validator  is 
available  online  at 
Microsoft’s  site, 
with  example  code 
for  you  to  use  IE  5’s 
parser  for 
validation. 

■  Displaying  XML 

Internet  Explorer’s 
efforts  in  displaying 
XML  in  a  tree 
structure  are  pretty, 
but  not  really  the 

kind  of  thing  you  want  users  to  see.  There 
are,  however,  a  number  of  ways  to 
format  XML  for  presentation. 

One  way  is  to  create  a  second  HTML 
document  with  a  script  that  iterates 
through  the  XML  and  inserts  its  content 
into  Dynamic  HTML  placeholders. 
Another  method  is  to  useXSL.  When  IE 
displays  XML  in  the  default  view,  it  does 
so  using  a  default  stylesheet.  You  can 
provide  your  own  stylesheet  to  customise 
the  display.  Fig  3  shows  a  simple 
example.  To  display  theXML  using  this 
stylesheet,  add  the  following  line  after  the 
XML  declaration: 


A  simple  XSL  stylesheet 


<?xml  version="1 .0"?> 

<xsl:stylesheet  xmlns:xsl=" http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl"> 
<xs L : template  match="/"> 

<HTML> 

<B0DY  BGC0L0R="AQUA"> 

<xsl :apply-templates  se lect="//INTRO"  /> 

<xsl :apply-templates  se  lect  =  "//CD"  /> 

</B0DY> 

</HTML> 

</xs  l : template> 


<xs l : template  match="INTRO"> 

<H3><xs  l : va  lue-of  / > < / H 3 > 

<HR/> 

</xs  l : template> 

<xs l : template  match="CD"> 

<P> 

<xsl :apply-templates  se lect="TITLE"  /> 
<xsl :  i f  mat ch  =  " CD [aTYPE=' Single'  ]"> 

< I > C D  si  ng  le</ IXBR/> 

</xs  l : i f > 

<xsl:apply-templates  select=" ARTIST" /> 
<xsl :apply-templates  se lect="LABEL"  /> 
<xsl:apply- templates  select=" PLAYTIME" 
<HR/> 

</P> 

</xs  l : template> 

<xs l : template  match="TITLE"> 

<B><xs  l : va  lue-of  /></B><BR/> 

</xs  l : template> 

<xs l : template  match="ARTIST"> 

<xs l : va  l ue-of  /><BR/> 

</xs l : template> 

<xs l : template  match="LABEL"> 

<xs l : va  lue-of  /> . 

</xs  l : template> 

<xsl:template  match="PLAYTIME"> 

Playing  time:  <xs l : va  l  ue-of  /> 

</xs l : template> 


/> 


</xs  l : sty  lesheet> 


■  Understanding  the  stylesheet 

The  stylesheet  in  Fig  3  looks  at  first  sight 
like  a  jumble  of  HTML  and  XML.  It  is  in 
fact  an  XML  document  which  defines  a 
series  of ‘xsktemplate’  elements.  The 
‘xsl:’  prefix  indicates  that  these  elements 
belong  to  the  namespace  referenced  in 
the  URL  at  the  top  ofthe  document. 

Each  template  element  has  a  ‘match’ 
attribute  that  tells  the  parser  which 


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<?xm  L-s ty  Lesheet 
type  =  " t ext / xs  L " 
href="cdstyLe.xsL"  ?> 

Fig 4  shows  the  results  in  Internet 
Explorer.  The  important  thing  to  realise 
is  that  a  different  stylesheet  could  display 
the  same  content  in  a  completely 
different  form.  For  example,  you  could 
use  a  table,  or  omit  the  label  and  playing 
time,  or  sort  the  CDs  by  title  or  by  artist, 
or  add  extra  text,  simply  by  amending  the 
stylesheet.  Another  point  is  that  the 
displayed  result  is  simple  HTML,  so  if  the 
parsing  is  done  server-side  it  would  be 
compatible  with  any  browser. 


▲  Fig  4  The  Fig  2 
XML  DOCUMENT 
WITH  AN  XSL 
STYLESHEET  APPLIED 

elements  in  the  target  XML  document 
should  be  transformed.  The  first 
template  has  the  attribute: 

<xs L : temp  Late  match  =  "/"> 
which  means  the  root  element  ofthe 
target  document. 

Within  this  template,  other 
templates  are  applied,  through  the 
‘xsl :apply-tem plates’  element. 
Specifically,  it  instructs  the  parser  to 
apply  first  the  INTRO  template,  and 
then  the  CD  template  to  all  matching 
elements.  These  templates  are  defined 
later  in  the  stylesheet.  The  INTRO 
template  uses  the  ‘xsl :val ue-of’  element 
to  insert  the  INTRO  data  between 
opening  and  closing  heading  tags.  The 
CD  template  uses  a  further  set  of 
‘xskapply-templates’  elements  to  apply 
different  templates  for  each  sub¬ 
element.  It  also  uses  the  ‘xskif’  element 
to  inspect  the  TYPE  attribute  ofthe  CD 
and  print  some  conditional  text. 

PCW  CONTACTS 


Tim  Anderson  welcomes  your  Web 
Development  questions  and  comments ,  via 
the  usual  PCW  address  or  via 

webdev@pcw.  co.  uk 

^http:// msdn.microsofi.com/xml  is  a  very 
good  resource  and  tutorial  for  XML  in  IE  5. 

♦ww  and  xml. on  are 

interestingsites  with  XML  resources. 

♦  v3.org  is  the  W3 C  committee’s  site , 

with  the  latest  on  XML  standardisation. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


225 


An  icon  by  any  other  name 

Andrew  Ward  looks  at  how  to  name  a  machine  so  that  users  and  administrators  can  find  it. 


The  ‘My  Computer’  icon  is  a 
regular  bone  of  contention. 
Users  naturally  want  to 
rename  it  to  something 
much  friendlier,  but  this 
causes  no  end  of  support  issues  when 
some  poor  helpdesk  operative  is  asking 
the  user  to  click  on  it.  If  they  don’t  know 
the  name,  they’re  reduced  to  having  to 
describe  the  icon  and  patiently  wait  while 
the  user  finds  it.  Michael  Davies  wrote  in 
to  suggest  renaming  it  to  include  both 
the  user  name  and  the  computer  name, 
while  retaining  the  words  ‘My 
Computer’.  This  neatly  solves  both 
problems,  in  that  it 
has  a  recognisable 
name,  while 
conveying 
something  useful 
both  to  the  user 
and  to  the  support 
desk. 

You  accomplish 
this  via  a  registry 
hack,  using 
regedt32,  and  not  via  renaming  the  icon 
on  the  desktop.  Navigate  to 
H  l<  EY_C  LASS  ES_  RO  OT\C  LSID\{20D04 
FE0-3AEA-1 069-A2D8-08002B30309D} 
and  delete  the  existing  <No  Name>  value. 
Create  a  new  value  and  once  again  don’t 
give  it  a  name.  Set  the  type  to 
REG_EXPAND_SZ  and  click  OK.  When 
prompted  for  the  string  value,  Michael 
recommends  entering 
“My  Computer  %USERNAME%  : 
%COMPUTERNAME%“ 
%COMPUTERNAME%  and 
%USERNAME%  are  automatically 
replaced  with  the  current  user  name  and 
computer  name.  Obviously,  either 
renaming  the  desktop  icon  or  editing  the 
registry  and  using  the  actual  user  and 
computer  names  would  be  unhelpful 
because,  of  course,  these  details  may 
change. 

By  using  this  method,  support  desk 
personnel  have  a  quick  and  easy  way  of 
finding  out  the  current  user  name  and 
computer  name,  while  still  standing  a 
good  chance  of  helping  the  user  click  on 
My  Computer  if  required. 


▲Using  a  helpful 

NAME  FOR  THE  My 

Computer  icon 

CAN  EASE  SUPPORT 
PROBLEMS 


Jj 


o 

w 

O 


◄  The  Office  97 

TOOLBAR  CAUSES  A 
NUMBER  OF  PROBLEMS 
FOR  NT  USERS 


■  Office  Intrusion 

The  Microsoft  Office  toolbar 
may  look  pretty,  but  clicking 
on  the  Excel  icon,  for  example, 
may  actually  cause  Notepad 
to  ru  n  -  or  i  n  my  case,  create 
an  email  message  with 
EXCEL.EXE  as  an  attachment. 
These  are  just  a  couple  of 
items  related  to  Microsoft 
Office  and  its  impact  on 
Windows  NT.  For  many  users, 
the  first  thing  they  do  after 
installing  Office  is  to  zap  the 
FINDFAST  process  from  the 
startup  group  and  kill  the 
office  shortcut  bar.  Finally, 
there’s  some  actual  evidence 
to  support  at  least  the  first  of 
these  actions  beyond  some 
faint  suspicion  that  it  impacts 
system  performance  and 
reliability. 

Microsoft  has  revealed  a 
bug  in  Office  97  SR2  which 
causes  the  following  error  on 
all  Windows  NT 4  versions: 

STOP  0x0000001  E 
(0xc0000005,0 
xa0055c99, 0x00000000, 
0x00000008)  in  WIN32K.SYS 

To  work  around  this 
problem,  Microsoft  suggests 
removing  FINDFAST.EXE  from 
the  Startup  group.  Simple  but 
effective. 

James  Stormont  and 
several  others  (OK,  many 
others)  have  complained  that 
my  suggested  technique  for 
persuading  ‘Open  with 
Notepad’  to  appear  at  the  top 
ofthe  Explorer 
short-cut  menu 
has  an  annoying 
side- effect.  The 
Microsoft  Office 
shortcut  bar 


this  case,  invalid)  assumption  that  the 
first  item  on  this  menu  will  always  be  the 
application  that  is  associated  with  that 
file  type.  Of  course,  ifyou  put  ‘Open  with 
Notepad’  at  the  top  ofthe  list  then  that’s 
no  longer  the  case,  and  all  that  the  Office 
shortcut  bar  ever  does  is  open  everything 
with  Notepad! 

As  far  as  anyone  can  tell,  it  is  only  the 
Office  shortcut  bar  that’s  affected  - 
single-clicking  document  items  on  the 
desktop  and  any  other  activity  still  works 
as  normal.  This  looks  like  another  bug  we 


Repair  Disk  Utility 


This  utility  updates  the  repair  informatic 
creates  an  Emergency  Repair  disk.  Th 
bootable  system  in  case  of  failure.  This 


Update  Repair  Info 


Create  Repair  Disk 


▲  Keeping  your 

REPAIR  DATA  UP  TO 
DATE  COULD  SAVE  YOU 
A  LOT  OF  TROUBLE 


can  chalk  up  to 
Office  97;  and 
although  I  have 
Office  2000 

here,  I  don’t  have  the  nerve  to  install  it  to 
see  ifthat  suffers  from  the  same  problem. 


■  Beware  the  repair  Disk! 

Readers  beware  -  RDISK  doesn’t 
normally  save  the  SAM  and  SECURITY 
hives.  A  Windows  NT  repair  disk  can 
raise  a  lot  of  questions.  As  a  reader 
discovered  some  months  ago,  ifyou 
don’t  keep  it  up  to  date  you  can  be  in  big 
trouble.  The  problem  is  that  it’s  not 
always  possible  to  update  it  -  as  I 
mentioned  a  few  issues  back,  mine  is  too 
big  to  fit  on  a  floppy  drive.  In  the  past, 

I’ve  suggested  that  you  run  RDISK  to 
create  a  backup  copy  in  the  \repair  folder 


Clicking  the  Excel  icon  on 


King 

the  Office  toolbar  may 
actually  run  Notepad 


works  on  the  (in 


226 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


on  your  hard  drive.  Ifthe  hard  drive  is  still 
readable  after  a  problem,  or  ifyou  have  a 
backup  copy  of  it,  then  the  NT  boot  disks 
can  be  used  to  recover  the  registry  from 
this  folder  instead  of  the  floppy  disk. 

However,  I  missed  an  important 
point.  When  you  run  RDISK,  it  doesn’t 
usually  save  the  SAM._and  SECURITY._ 
registry  hives.  There’s  a  good  reason  for 
this:  in  Windows  NT 4,  user  information 
is  stored  (rather  unwisely)  in  the  registry. 
Ifyou  have  thousands  of  users,  these 
hives  could  be  massive  and  even  when 
compressed  by  RDISK  wouldn’t  stand 
any  chance  of  fitting  on  a  floppy  disk. 

The  good  news  is  that  when  Windows 
2000  appears  (which  could  be  about  a 
month  after  you  read  this),  all  Active 
Directory  information  is  stored  within  a 
JET  database. 


m  saved  when  you  installed  the  system,  and 
e  repair  information  is  used  to  recover  a 
:  utility  should  not  be  used  as  a  backup  tool. 


Help 


But  for  now,  if  you’re  reduced  to  using 
the  hard  disk  backup  method,  or  ifyou 
don’t  have  too  many  users,  then  you’ll 
definitely  want  to  save  these  hives. 
Otherwise,  you’ll  face  hours  offun 
recreating  user  and  group  information, 
since  the  SAM  and  SECURITY  hives  saved 
in  the  /repair  folder  will  only  contain  the 
default  administrator  account  and  the 
password  used  during  Setup  (and  I  hope 
you  can  remember  what  that  was). 

To  back  up  these  two  additional 
hives,  run  RDISKwith  the  /S  option  (it 
will  also  save  the  usual  stuff).  Following 
the  backup,  RDISK  will  ask  you  ifyou 
want  to  create  an  emergency  repair  disk. 
Ifyou  don’t  want  to  see  that  question 
then  use  RDISK /S-  (note  the  minus  sign 
afterthe  S),  and  RDISK  will  exit  as  soon 
as  it  has  finished  saving  the  hives. 

Ifyou  don’t  know  whether  you  will 
run  out  of  space  on  the  emergency  repair 
disk  by  using  this  technique,  then  first  of 
all  take  a  backup  of  everything  in  the 
\repair  folder  (the  full  path  is 
<systemroot>\repair  by  the  way).  Then, 
afteryou  run  RDISK/S  ifyou  have  a 


problem  fitting  the  files  onto  a  single 
disk,  then  you  can  reinstate  the  original 
\repair  directory  and  abandon  the  idea 
of  backing  up  SAM  and  SECURITY  hives. 

By  the  way,  RDISK/S-  is  a  useful  way 
ofgettingthe  registry  backed  up  ifyou 
are  using  a  backup  tool  or  medium  that 
doesn’t  normally  back  up  the  registry. 
Before  you  run 
a  backup, 
schedule 
RDISK/S-  to 
run  so  that  it 
copies  the 
registry  hives 
to  your  \repair  directory,  from  where  any 
backup  program  should  be  able  to 
access  them  in  the  same  way  as  any  other 
normal  file.  Although  the  NTBACKUP 
program  that  comes  with  NT  does 
backup  the  live  registry,  not  every  other 
backup  program  does.  With  the  online 
backup  service  NetStore,  for  example, 
although  the  registry  can  be  backed  up 
this  requires  switching  the  program  into 
‘all  files’  mode,  whereby  it  backs  up 
absolutely  everything,  necessitating  many 
long  nights  of  online  time. 

■  Dancing  Icons 

A  frequent  complaint  from  readers  is 
that  desktop  icons  don’t  stay  where 
they’re  put.  Tim  Gathercole  has  suffered 
from  this  since  a  reinstallation  ofService 
Pack  4;  after  a  reboot,  desktop  icons 
don’t  remembertheir  previous  positions 
and  reappear  all 
lined  up  down  the 
left-hand  side  of 
the  screen. 

However,  Tim  has 
been  able  to 
throw  a  bit  more 
light  onto  the 
issue.  First  of  all, 
he  suffers  from  the 
problem  worst 
than  most  —  his 
application 
windows  don’t 
remembertheir 
positions  either. 

But  he  has  also 
observed  that  if  he 
closes  all  windows 
before  closing 
down  the  system, 
then  the  desktop 
icons  do 
remembertheir 
positions,  and 


applications  do  start  up  with  their 
windows  in  their  previous  positions. 

The  conventional  answer  is  that  the 
location  of  icons  on  the  desktop  is  saved 
when  you  log  out  or  shut  down  Windows 
NT.  Ifthe  location  ofthe  icons  has 
changed  and  the  changes  have  not  been 
saved,  the  previous  positions  are  used; 

and  you  can 
force  a  save  of 
the  existing 
layout  by 
clicking  on  the 
desktop  and 
then  pressing 
F5.  Why  would  the  changes  not  be 
saved?  Usually,  this  is  because  Explorer  is 
crashing  at  some  point  during  the 
logoff/shutdown  procedure  (and  this 
may  or  may  not  be  apparent  to  the  user). 
Alternatively,  it’s  because  for  some 
reason  Explorer  is  unable  to  write  this 
information  into  the  registry. 

Active  Desktop,  Internet  Explorer  and 
TweakUl  have  all  been  suggested  as  likely 
culprits  for  interfering  with  desktop 
icons,  so  removing,  disabling  and/or 
reinstalling  these  can  be  worth  a  try.  In 
particular,  some  people  have  a  problem 
with  TweakUl  interfering  with  IE4and 
causing  icon  corruption  (rather  than 
losing  positions).  The  fix  to  this  is  to 
remove  TweakUl  and  delete 
<systemroot>\ShelllconCache. 

Interestingly,  Microsoft  also  suggests 
you  take  the  following  step  before  you 


You’ll  definitely  want  to 
save  these  hives  or  you’ll 
face  hours  of fun 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


227 


LfUl 


i 

n 

o  j  i 

wind 

o ws  n t 

■  Default 
Desktops 

Adrian 
Shephard 
would  like  to 
set  up  a 
basic  default 
desktop  for 
Windows 
NT 

Workstation 
systems, 
with  pre¬ 
defined 


j  :  i 
i  ::rar 

□  j  i nr? in ■ .« .nvn iu^ 


A  One  way  of 

SPECIFYING  A  DRIVE 


delete  ShelllconCache: 

Open  the  Display  control  panel 
Select  the  Appearance  tab 
In  the  Item  box,  select  Icon 
Increase  the  icon  size  by  one 
Select  Apply 

Decrease  the  icon  size  by  one 
Select  OK. 

Another  interesting  aspect  to  this 
problem,  Tim  says,  is  that  on  a  second 
machine,  while  the  same  problem 
occurs,  it  only  occurs  for  the  user  profile 
that  was  used  to  install  the  Service  Pack. 

■  Going  for  a  drive 

A  quick  note  about  the  Windows  NT 
Explorer.  In  many  instances  under 
Windows  NT,  drive  C  is  not  the  main 
drive,  but  when  you  start  up  Explorer, 
drive  C  is  usually  expanded  by  default 
(that  is,  it  looks  as  ifyou’d  clicked  on  the 
+  sign  to  open  up  the  drive  view).  Ifyour 
Windows  system  directory  is  on  a 
different  drive,  then  that  drive  would 
usually  be  the  one  expanded.  However, 
many  users  would  prefer  to  have  a 
specific  drive,  or  even  no  drive,  expanded 
in  this  way.  Here  are  two  alternative 
command-lines  that  you  can  use. 

This  first  starts  up  Explorer  with  no 
drive  expanded  at  all: 
<systemroot>\exp  Lorer.exe 
/e, / root,, : : {20D04 F E0-3AEA- 
1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} 

Alternatively,  this  example  opens  up 
drive  D  instead  ofC: 
<systemroot>\exp Lorer.exe 
/n, /e, D  :  \ 

Here  is  a  full  explanation  ofthe 
command-line  options  for  Explorer  in 
Windows  NT 4.0: 

/n  This  opens  a  new  single-pane 

window  for  the  default  selection  (as  if 
you’d  opened  it  via  the  My  Computer 
icon).  This  is  usually  the  root  ofthe  drive 
which  Windows  NT  is  installed  on.  Ifthe 
window  is  already  open,  then  a  new 
window  opens. 

/e  This  opens  Windows  Explorer 

in  its  usual  view. 

,/root,<object>  This  specifies  the 
object  to  be  used  as  the  root  ofthe  view. 

, /select, <object>  This  opens  a  window 
view  ofthe  parent  folder  and  with  the 
specified  folder,  file  or  application 
selected. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  the  /select 
option  does  not  work  ifyou  choose  the 
/e  view,  and  that  you  have  to  precede 
the  /root  and  /select  options  with  a 
comma. 


drive  and 

printer 

settings. 

This  would 

mean  that  when  any  new  user  logs  in  for 
the  first  time  their  drives  and  printers  are 
mapped  automatically. 

Well,  of  course,  one  way  to  achieve 
this  is  for  the  network  administrator  to 


set  up  a  logon  script  when  creating  the 
new  user,  but  there  is  a  way  to  configure 
a  system  (or  domain)  so  that  all  new 
users  automatically  get  particular 
settings  without  having  to  first  create 
that  script. 

However,  this  is  a  rather  messy 
procedure  that  involves  extensive  registry 
editing.  An  alternative  method  would  be 
to  use  the  System  Policy  editor,  having 
first  configured  the  template  file 
appropriately. 

When  a  new  user  logs  on  for  the  first 
time,  the  default  user  profile  is  used  as 
the  basis  oftheir  personal  profile,  so  you 
have  to  start  by  editing  the  default  user 
profile.  This  is  stored  as: 
<systemroot>\Profi LesXDefauLt 
User\NTUSER.DAT. 

To  make  these  changes,  run  the 
proper  registry  editor  regedt32,  go  to  the 
window  called  HKEYJJSERS  on  Local 
Machine,  drop  down  the  Registry  menu 
and  select  Load  Hive.  Navigate  to  the 
NTUSER.DAT file  mentioned  above. 

Enter  something  suitable  for  the  key 
name,  for  example  ‘defaultuser’  (ifyou 
just  use  the  word  ‘default’  you  are  liable 


A  One  way  of 

SPECIFYING  A  DRIVE 
MAPPING  WHICH 
CAN  BE  APPLIED  TO 
ALL  NEW  USER 
ACCOUNTS 

to  get  it  confused 

with  the  key  cal  led  .DEFAULT).  Now, 
select  the  key  name  defaultuser  within 
the  window,  and  add  a  new  key  (using 
the  menu  option  Edit,  Add  Key)  with  the 


name  Network.  Select  the  Network  key 
you  have  just  created,  and  add  a  new  key 
under  that  with  the  drive  name. 

What  you  want  to  end  up  with  is  a  key 
defaultuser\Network\H,  for  example,  if 
the  drive  you  want  to  be  mapped  is  letter 
H.  Now,  create  the  values  shown  in  Fig  1 
using  Edit,  Add  Value  (The  actual  values 
you  require  may  differ  on  your  network, 
but  you  can  find  out  what  they  should  be 
by  mapping  a  drive  manually  and 
inspecting  the  registry).  Now,  reselect  the 
root  ofthe  hive  (defaultuser)  in  the  tree 
view,  then  in  the  Registry  menu,  select 
Unload  Hive  and  Quit. 

With  any  luck,  when  any  new  user 
logs  onto  that  machine,  they  will  have  a 
new  default  drive  mapping.  It  may  be 
possible  to  leave  out  the  UserName  value 
to  see  ifWindows  NT  will  use  the 
currently  logged  on  user  instead. 

PCW  CONTACTS _ 

Andrew  Ward  welcomes  your  comments 
on  the  Windows  NT  column.  Contact  him 
via  the  PCW  editorial  office  or  email 
NT@pcw.co.uk 


[FIG  1] 

Value  name 

Type 

Data 

Re  mote  Path 

REG_SZ 

UNC  path  to  remote  drive  (eg  \\DENVER\vpop3) 

UserName 

REG_SZ 

A  user  with  rights  to  the  remote  drive  (eg  \\DOMAIN\user) 

ProviderName 

REG_SZ 

Microsoft  Windows  Network 

ProviderType 

REG_DWORD 

020000  (in  hexadecimal) 

ConnectionType 

REG_DWORD 

1 

228 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


nii  ric 


1  PDAs 


u;  J 


Psion  v  WinCE 


Microsoft  looks  set  to  blitzkrieg  its  way  to  a  victory  in  the  PDA  war ,  says  Mark  Whitehorn. 


Coincidentally,  both  the 
Symbian  and  WinCE 
developers’  conferences 
were  held  within  days  of 
each  other  in  June. 
Attending  both  seemed  like  a  perfect 
opportunity  to  compare  and  contrast 
the  development  potential  of  both 
platforms.  In  turn  I  felt  that  this  might 
allow  me  to  deal  with  the  ‘ultimate 
question’  that  seems  to  be  cropping  up 
more  and  more  frequently.  The  ultimate 
question  has  several  forms,  but  they  all 
boil  down  to  the  same  thing: 

‘I  want  to  buy  the  PDA  that  will 
ultimately  survive,  so  should  I  buy  a 
Psion  ora  WinCE  machine?’ 

(I  realise  that  Symbian  and  Psion  are 
not  the  same  company,  but  then  they 
aren’t  exactly  rivals  either!) 

I  found  an  answer  (and  I  promise  it 
won’t  be  42). 


The 

Symbian 
conference 

was  held  on 
a  Thursday 

and  Friday  in  London,  the  WinCE 
conference  began  in  Denver  on  the 
following  Sunday  and  ran  till 
Wednesday.  Fora  start,  the  sheer 
difference  in  size  was  boggling. 


fun  and  technical;  a  high  ratio  suggests 
that  big  business  has  become  interested 
in  the  topic.  The  suits  are  looking  for 
ways  to  make  money  that  means  some  of 
the  fun  will  be  replaced  by  financial 
considerations.  I  reckon  that  the 
Symbian  conference  was  low  — 
enthusiasts  were  noticeable  by  their 
presence.  However  the  ratio  at  the 
WinCE  conference  was  stratospheric:  so 
high  that  other  attendees  were, 
unbidden,  commenting  on  the  lack  of 
open-toed  footwear. 

■  Which  companies  wanted  to  align 
themselves  with  which  conference? 

Ericsson,  Motorola,  Matsushita,  Sun, 
Metrowerks,  Nokia,  Psion  Enterprise, 
Psion  Computing,  Oracle,  Sybase  and 
ARM  were  at  the  Symbian  conference 
and  all  the  manufacturers  of  handheld 

devices 
(Casio, 

HP  etc), 
together 
with  IBM, 
Sybase, 
Oracle 

etc  (in  other  words,  lots  of  others)  were 
at  the  WinCE  conference. 

So  telecomms  was  well  represented  at 
the  Symbian  conference. 


The  entire  Microsoft  site  is  to 
move  to  a  wireless  network 
as  an  aid  to  the  use  of  PDAs 


■  How  big? 

The  Symbian  conference  boasted  about 
426  attendees,  24  speakers’  sessions  and 
seven  supporting  artists  (companies  like 
Purple  Software,  which  develop  and  sell 
software  for  the  platform). 

The  WinCE  conference  claimed 
2,000+  attendees,  more  than  90 
speakers’  sessions/labs  and  about  135 
supporting  artists. 

So  the  WinCE  conference  was  much 
larger  and  longer,  a  factor  that  is 
important  because  the  more  attendees 
and  supporting  artists,  the  more 
software  is  going  to  be  developed  for 
that  particular  platform. 

■  Who  were  the  attendees? 

The  suit/sandal  ratio  is  a  worthwhile 
indicator.  A  low  suit/sandal  ratio 
suggests  that  a  conference  is  going  to  be 


■  What  did  they  want  to  tell  us? 

Psion  talked  about  the  new  Psions  —  the 
32-bit  Series  5mx  has  a  new  half-VGA 
width  back-lit  screen,  a  stylus  and  a 
touch-type  keyboard,  16Mb  RAM,  a 
CompactFlash  card  slot,  a  36MHz 
ARM71 0T  RISC  processor.  All  ofthis  is  in 
a  device  weighing  354  grams  and  with  a 
claimed  battery  life  ofa  month  on  2  AA 
batteries.  There’s  also  ajava  Virtual 
Machine  on  the  CD  that  ships  with  the 
Series  5mx.  Wow. 

If  that  wasn’t  enough  there  was  the 
netBook,  claimed  to  be  the  world’s  first 
truly  mobile  network  computer, 
incorporating  1 00  percent  pure  Java 
technology.  This  is  more  ofa  virtual 
device  at  present  but  promises,  overtime, 
to  provide  a  range  that  will  include  a 
choice  of  quarter,  half  and  full  VGA 
resolution  screens,  pen  and  keyboard 
driven  tablet  and  clamshell  devices.  The 


netBook  features  Psion’s  first 
implementation  of  colour  on  a  full  VGA 
screen,  with  pen-driven  navigation  and 
data  input,  together  with  a  standard 
QWERTY  keyboard.  There’s  also  a  PC 
card  drive  and  a  slot  for  either  a  compact 
flash  card  or  disk  drive.  Double  wow. 

The  WinCE  affair  had  two  keynotes. 
Harel  Kodesh,VP  of  Microsoft’s 
Productivity  Appliance  Division,  told  the 
assembled  developers  what  they  wanted 
to  hear  -  that  they  were  the  chosen  ones. 
Predictably,  this  went  down  a  storm. 

Then  he  told  them  things  like  ‘the 
emerging  information  appliance  industry 
promises  to  enable  form  factors  and 
scenarios  that  are  currently  not  possible 
with  today’s  software  and  hardware’.  I 
was  left  wondering  what  exactly  a  ‘form 
factor’  was  and  whether  the  word 
‘scenario’  wasn’t  due  for  a  rest  by  now. 

So  far,  a  perfectly  normal  keynote 
from  Microsoft,  but  then,  without  any 
warning  at  all,  something  of  substance 
appeared.  A  ‘demo’  ofWindows  CE 
running  on  a  petrol  pump.  The  pump 
talks  to  the  server  in  the  station  by  email, 
from  the  station  you  can  browse  the  state 
ofthe  pump  usingTCP/IP  and  HTML. 

Technically,  the  information  was 
fascinating,  particularly  as  we  were 
assured  that  this  wasn’t  vapourware,  this 
was  an  operational  system.  But  Kodesh 
spoilt  it  all  by  saying  that  the  pumps 
‘revolutionise  the  consumer  experience’ 

—  meaning  that  they  showed  the 
customer  Coke  advertisements  while 
dispensing  petrol  (really,  I’m  not 
kidding).  He  clearly  hadn’t  spotted  the 
word  ‘developer’  in  the  conference  title. 
Then  again,  perhaps  he  had  noticed  the 
suit/sandal  ratio... 

Bob  Muglia,  senior  VP  of  Microsoft’s 
Business  Productivity  Group,  gave  the 
other  keynote.  He  spoke  mainly  ofthe 
company’s  overall  strategy,  some  of 
which  actually  had  relevance  to  mobile 
computing,  like  the  fact  that  the  entire 
Microsoft  site  at  Redmond  is  destined  to 
move  to  a  wireless  network  within  a  year. 
This  is  mainly  as  an  aid  to  the  use  of 
PDAs  on  the  site  —  which,  as  an  aside, 
seems  to  indicate  that  Microsoft  is 
genuinely  interested  in  the  use  of  PDAs 
and  notjust  interested  in  selling  WinCE. 


2M 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


So,  Psion  talked  about  new  hardware; 
Microsoft,  as  it  so  often  does,  talked 
mainly  in  ‘global  terms’,  but  it  also 
demonstrated  WinCE  being  used  in  a 
real  life  commercial  application  where  it 
runs  as  an  embedded  system. 


■  Where  were  the  best  toys? 

Here  there  was  no  contest,  the  WinCE 
conference  simply  wins  hands  down  with 
desirable  toys,  both  hard  and  soft. 

■  Which  event  had  the  best 
development  tools? 

If  I  were  a  professional  developer  for  the 
PDA,  there  is  no  doubt  which  platform  I 
would  choose.  WinCE  scores  again. 

So,  what  conclusion  did  I  come  to 
about  the  future  of  PDAs  after 
overdosing  on  their  conferences? 

Before  answering,  please  forgive  me 
for  indulging  in  a  brief  historical  review. 
Microsoft  rose  to  power  by  developing 
an  operating  system  that  ran  on  PCs.  PCs 
are  essentially  all  BBBs  (Boring  Beige 
Boxes),  so  the  company  that  controlled 
the  OS  controlled  the  market.  Then 
Microsoft  went  on  to  control  the 
software  and  on  and  on.  ’Nuffsaid. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  PDA  world,  there 
were  no  BBBs  because  the  technical 
margins  were  so  much  tighter.  The 
challenge  of  optimising  battery  life, 
machine  size,  machine  style,  screen 
readability,  software  stability,  software 
functionality,  memory  requirements,  etc, 
defeated  some  companies  completely. 
Two  succeeded  brilliantly  —  Psion  and  US 
Robotics  (PalmPilot).  Both  ofthese  firms 
bit  the  bullet  and  developed  an  OS  and  a 
machine  that  were  tightly  integrated. 
Only  by  doing  so  could  all  ofthe  above 
factors  be  satisfactorily  balanced,  each 
against  the 
others. 

So  much  for 
history;  Moore’s 
law  is 

implacable  and 
the  price/power 

ratio  for  PDA-type  hardware  has 
plummeted.  So,  crucially  as  far  as  Psion 
is  concerned,  the  need  for  a  tight 
integration  between  the  OS  and  the 
hardware  has  gone. 

Secondly,  the  diversity  of  PDAs  is 
undergoing  a  sea  change.  PDAs  have 
never  fallen  into  the  BBB  category  in  any 
case  -  look  at  the  Psion  and  the  Palm; 
about  the  only  similarity  is  that  both 


▲The  Clio:  an 

ATTRACTIVE  AND 
VERSATILE  PC 
COMPANION. 

Papa?  Nicole? 


Swinglnp 


3  dlffefEM 


begin  with  P.  But 
the  range  of  new 
machines  is  much 
more  varied. 

Vadem’s  Clio 
(right)  can  be 
simply  a  writing 
pad  that  turns 
your  hand¬ 
written  words 
into  text.  A  PDA 
can  be  a  device 
for  watching  videos, 

something  you  wear  on  your  wrist,  it  can 
be  something  that  slots  into  a  pocket  of 
your  suit  and  takes  voice  input  via  a  tiny 
microphone  and  outputs  via  an  earplug 
—  all  ofthese  devices  do  or  will  soon  exist 
and  someone,  somewhere  will  buy  them. 

So,  the  situation  is  that: 

We  no  longer  need  to  tie  the  OS  to  the 
hardware. 

m-  PDAs  are  in  the  process  of  diverging 
into  manifold  forms. 

Fine.  WinCE  can  deliver  many 
different  machines;  in  fact,  Microsoft 
doesn’t  have  to  do  anything,  it  just 
delivers  the  OS  and  leaves  it  to  the  others 
to  come  up  with  the  hardware.  Psion  is 


U^y  Clift  liku  .1  ratil  ub-iiuk. 

CiK's  phretkig  *tti  Joi;:-  thfr-asplafp 

At  IhH  men*  Th*  Ljrijf 

tfrvbftftrd  .i  d  j^-hdur  baiidfp  m'u  lac  -  j  %-ftrf, 
cftpircrtsbly  an  long-pJaro  fights.  You  con  ohsn 

pnmt  CMpLa-V  hrwvd  tD  WTSft  HI  WCR 

ftftCl  bftriftd  i Mil  in  £  iilmu  wiili. 

Un  Clift  llkft  d  Cdblftt. 

swing  rl  spiny  dft*<n  OMPr 
layhiii'd.  Ynu  c«n  jechm  flam.  bi1\  hh:I 

ciuridirs  uhi;  rht-  tobch  izsttYi.  Yojcsn 
pybd  “Tit?  pat  uH*>g  cin^  bult-r 

nstagnsio^  luPiwoi ra>. 

IJift  Clift  llkft  d  p^OtantdAlOf!  tftUl. 

Iwnij  i^i:.  %ntn  cowl  ft* mat.  v*)  yw  thfl 
Eftud-I  Sftiftuii  Id  run  ydir  fn  v.u-il  dli  jr., 

jLcc-jj  Has,  and  pnamccn  Yftur>dHas 


promoting 

in  was  a  PDA  developer 
there  is  no  doubt  which 


platform  I  would  choose 


new 

hardware,  but 
Psion  is  only 
one  company 
and  cannot 
possibly 

deliver  the  diversity  of  hardware  that  the 
market  requires. 

Indeed,  given  the  history,  we  are 
moving  into  major  irony  territory  now. 
Microsoft  continues  to  be  pilloried  for 
trying  to  control  the  PC  market  but,  by 
selling  an  OS  solely  for  PDAs,  it  is  actively 
promoting  an  open  PDA  market.  It  is 
companies  like  Psion,  keen  to  sell  a 
hard  ware/ software  combination,  which 


are  in  danger  of  being  accused  of 
promoting  a  closed  market. 

■  So,  who  will  win? 

To  summarise: 

WinCE  has  more  developers  and 
better  development  tools. 

■*~The  suits  are  interested  enough  in 
WinCE  to  attend  the  conferences,  so  the 
money  is  also  there  to  develop 
applications. 

■^The  hardware  manufacturers  are 
flocking  to  WinCE. 

People  who  aren’t  interested  in  the 
history  of  PDAs  will  buy  whichever  toy 
appeals  to  them  from  the  range 
presented.  There  will  be  more  WinCE 
machines  in  that  range  than  Symbians. 
There  is  really  no  contest. 

In  an  attempt  to  forestall  the  flood  of 
hate  mail  from  Psion  users,  let  me  make 
it  clear  what  I  am  not  saying: 

That  WinCE  is  technically  better  than 
EPOC.  I  think  the  reverse  is  true,  but 
technical  excellence  is  not  going  to  be  the 
deciding  factor. 

«*~The  Psion  PDA  line  is  finished  —  Psion 
can  continue  to  produce  machines  that  I 
hope  will  sell  well.  I  like  the  machines 
that  the  company  produces. 

•*~That  might  is  right. 

Also,  please  note  that  I  have  been 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


1231 


JTJSiUU 


1  1 

n 

w  1 0 

p 

DAs 

n 


Windows  CE 


Saturday,  Hanuary  02,  1099 

©  m  %  & 

Contacts  Calculator  calendar  Notetaker 

'  -i 


InboK  T«b  Voice  Chamds 

V  V  'V  ¥ 

PC  Link  Sloctc  Explorer  OfmiSOlve 

'  M  8  ' 


;aastjn|aH 


JL  STiHun 
W  PflDD 


talking  about  PDAs.  Psion  is  clearly  in  an 
impressive  position  to  do  great  things 
with  phones  and  that  is  a  whole  new  ball 
game.  Psion  supporters  will  be  delighted 
to  learn  that  Microsoft  only 
demonstrated  one  piece  of  software 
running  on  a  phone  —  a  ‘micro-browser’ 
that  could  talk  to  a  server  and  pick  up 
mail.  It  was  dreadful. 

What  I’m  saying  is  that  it  is  now  clear 
that  WinCE  will  become  the  dominant 
OS  on  PDAs.  Ifthis  affects  your  choice  of 
a  PDA,  then  buy  one  with  WinCE. 

■  Toy  story 

The  WinCE  show  was  a  techno-toy 
freak’s  nightmare  —  too  many  goodies.  I 
desperately  tried  to  buy  a  Vadem  Clio 
while  at  the  show.  This  is  a  wonderfully 
bizarre  PDA:  as  the  screen  shots  on  the 
previous  page  show,  the  screen  is  hinged 
so  that  it  can  be  used  either  as  a 
conventional  display  device  or  as  a  pad 
upon  which  you  can  write.  So  you  can 
hold  the  device  like  a  paper  pad,  write  on 
the  screen  and  the  software  will  turn  your 
words  into  text.  It  isn’t  that  word 
recognition  is  new,  just  that  the  whole 
bundle  works  so  well  as  a  complete  unit. 
And  it  was  available  at  just  $500.  Sadly 
my  attempts  to  buy  one  in  time  to  carry  it 
home  came  to  naught,  they  aren’t 
available  in  the  UK  and  cannot  be 
shipped.  However,  I  have  no  doubt  that 
they  (or  some  variation)  will  appear  here 
soon  <www.vadem.com>. 

Then  there’s  the  Casio  El  00.  I  already 
have  one  of  the  first  UK  spec  machines 
and  by  the  time  you  read  this  it  should  be 
available  to  buy.  The  processor  runs  at 
131  MHz,  it  has  1 6Mb  of  RAM,  a 
240x320  TFT  screen  providing  65,536 
colours.  This  palm  sized  device  is 


I  roe*  SalitJT 


-U  *■> 


CtfW4  Cafcsjato  CsJuridw 

sa  rS 

v  i.  -  Ji  — 

Inbox  Td-cks  Voce- 

I  1 

SOMWtHPbKlac 


M  I 


▲  Sticky  buttons?  Beam 
me  up,  Kenny 


◄  TankZone  3D  is 
Fighting  for  a  good  cause 


powerful  enough  to  play  video  clips 
complete  with  stereo  sound,  and  this 
sort  of  power  also  means  that  there  is  no 
longer  a  need  for  a  tight  integration  of 
the  OS  and  the  hardware. 

■  Fun  Stuff 

John  Kennedy  <johnk@dircon.co.uk>  has 

been  at  it  again.  HisTankZone,  the  3D 
shoot-em-up,  is  now  available  in  colour 
forthe Jornada  420  colour  palmsize,  as 
well  as  the  640x480  screen  HPC  Pro. 
(above).  TankZone  is  a  charity-ware 
program  so  it’s  fun  and  you  can  feel 
good  about  playing  it. 

Kennedy’s  Pocket  Universe  has  also 
been  updated  to  Pocket  Universe  2000, 
and  has  many  new  features.  Once  again, 
support  is  included  for  both  the  colour 
and  the  larger  screen  size  of  the  H  PC 


Pro  and  the  Palm  machines. 

Even  more  fun, John  has 
produced  Sticky  Buttons,  a 
brand  new  User  Interface 
for  WinCE  machines.  Sticky 
Buttons  adds  program 
launch  icons  to  the  Active 
Desktop  ofthe  palmsize  PC. 
So,  like  a  Palm,  you  can 
simply  tap  a  large  icon  to 
launch  the  contacts  or 
calculator  display. 

What’s  more,  anyone 
can  add  their  own  icons  to 
the  display:  already  there 
are  South  Park,  Star  Trek 
and  other  free  themes  to 
download  (Pictured  at  the  top  ofthe 
page).  I’ve  got  it  running  on  my  Casio  and 
it’s  fantastic.  Especially  the  HAL  version... 


Andrew  Hirst  <ahirst@csi.com>  writes:  ‘I 
thought  you  might  be  interested  to  know 
of  some  developer  news  for  EPOC. 

Neuon  are  developing  a  number  of 
dialog  OPX’s  to  bring  the  diverse  and 
flexible  controls  currently  only  available 
to  C++  developers,  within  the  reach  of 
those  who  use  OPL32.  Releases  and 
details  are  at  www.neuon.com. 


PCW  CONTACTS 


Mark  Whitehorn  welcomesyour  feedback 
on  the  PDAs  column.  Contact  him  via 
the  PCW  editorial  office ,  or  email 

pda@pcw.co.uk 


2321 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


nun 


umx 


07 


Remembrance  day 

Chris  Bidmead  finds  that  Emacs  beats  the  established  word  processors  hands  down. 


What’s  the  best  word 
processor  to  run  on 
UNIX?  I’ve  tried  to 
persuade  you  on 
several  occasions  to 
take  a  radical  approach  to  this  question. 
Ifyou’re  looking  for  Microsoft  Word,  you 
won’t  find  it  —  although  WordPerfect  8, 
StarOffice,  Applixware,  Ted,  Maxwell, 
etc,  should  provide  a  lot  ofwhatyou 
need.  Or  at  least  what  you  think  you 
need.  Me?  I  use  Emacs. 

I’m  not  going  to  rerun  the  old 
arguments  here  about  the  benefits  of  a 
completely  tailorable,  totally  cross¬ 
platform,  free,  open  source  text  editor 
that  operates  primarily  in  ASCII.  But 
here’s  a  brand  new  reason.  Emacs 
supports  the  Remembrance  Agent. 

The  Remembrance  Agent  is  a  search 
and  retrieval  tool  being  developed  by 
Bradley  Rhodes  at  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  ofTechnology’s  Media  Lab.  The 
idea  is  that  we  all  have  a  mess  of 
information  lying  around,  and  some  of 
us  (like  me)  may  have  been  methodical 
enough  to  have  organised  it  into  a  text 
retrieval  database.  This  enables  us  to  find 
anything  we  look  for  simply  by  typing  in  a 
search  phrase  —  but  there’s  a  catch. 
What  if  there’s  a  perfectly  useful  piece  of 
information  in  there  that  you  don’t  know 
about,  and  so  miss  looking  up?  The 
Remembrance 
Agent’s  job  is 
to  watch  over 
your  shoulder 
as  you  write 
or  review 
documents, 
and  suggest 
information  that  might  be  relevant  to  the 
text  in  front  of  you.  That  way  it  can  offer 
you  information  you  didn’t  even  know 
enough  to  ask  about. 

Rhodes’  Remembrance  Agent  comes 
as  a  source  tarball  (available  at 
rhodes.www  .media.mit.edu/people/ 
rhodes/RA)  so  you’ll  need  to  untar  this 
and  compile  the  code  on  your  own 
machine.  Ifyou’re  running  Red  Hat  Linux 
or  something  close  there  are  ready-made 
i386  binaries  forversion  5.2  and  6.0. 


The  basic  retrieval  system  can  be  run 
from  the  command  prompt,  but  to  get 
the  full  benefit  you’ll  need  to  have  a 
recent  version  of  Emacs  orXemacs  on 
your  system.  Ifyou  do  decide  to  explore 
this,  please  write  in  and  let  me  know  how 
you  get  on. 

■  Source  Code  Unifies  UNIX 

In  the  commercial  world,  a  lot  of  effort 
has  gone  into 
developing 
ways  of 
distributing 
software  that 
will  install  on 
different  UNIX 
versions 

running  on  different  processors.  The  one 
I  remember  was  called  ANDF 
(Architecture  Neutral  Distribution 
Format),  but  not  much  seems  to  have 
happened  about  this.  There’s  a  practical 
open  source  compiler  at  http://alph.dra. 
hmg.gb/TenDRA,  and  the  GNU  people 
reportedly  have  an  ANDF  project  on 
their  back  burner. 

But  the  point  of  ANDF  is  to  be  able  to 
distribute  code  in  a  closed  form  across 
multiple  platforms.  Ifthe  code  you’re 


▲  This  is  the  Rembembrance  Agent, 

WORKING  WHILE  I  WRITE  THIS  COLUMN.  THE 
DATABASE  IN  THE  LOWER  PART  OF  THE  EMACS 
WINDOW  IS  DERIVED  FROM 
CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  READERS.  THE 
BACKGROUND,  INCIDENTALLY,  IS  ONE  OF 
THOSE,  ER,  RISKY  RANDOM  IMAGES 
CONJURED  UP  BY  BLINK 

distributing  is  open  source,  the  task  is  a 
lot  easier.  The  standard  utility  that 
controls  how  a  particular  piece  of  source 
code  is  compiled  is  called  ‘Make’,  and 
you’ll  find  this  on  every  UNIX-like  system 
(except  for  some  dumb  commercial 
UNIXes  sold  as ‘user  systems’).  Make’s 
behaviour  (which  compiler  it  calls,  which 
libraries  it  uses  and  so  on)  is  controlled 
by  a  configfile,  usually  called  ‘Makefile’. 
So,  essentially,  when  compiling  the  same 
chunk  of  source  code,  the  only  thing 
different  on  my  Sun  system,  my  FreeBSD 
system  ormyAlX  system  is  the  Makefile. 

OK,  I’m  simplifying.  For  example, 
there  are  key  differences  in  some  of  the 
internals  ofthe  various  UNIX-like  systems 
that  have  to  be  taken  care  of  by 
conditional  branches  in  the  source  code, 
and  this  is  all  extra  work  for  somebody. 
But  if  that  somebody  has  done  the  work 
right,  you  as  an  end-user  don’t  need  to 
know  about  it.  The  point  I’m  getting  to  is 


What  if  there9 s  a  useful 
piece  of  information  that 
you  don’t  know  about, 
and  so  miss  looking  up? 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


1233 


I 


I  I  I  l 


unix 


±9  \J  \ 


that  source  code, 
combined  with  a  way 
of  setting  up  the 
Makefile  appropriate 
to  your  system,  is  an 
entirely  viable  way  of 
distributing  software 
cross-platform. 

So  how  do  you  get 
the  right  Makefile?  If 
you  download  the 
source  version  ofthe 
Remembrance  Agent 
you’ll  see  it  comes 
with  a  script  called 
'configure’.  You  run 
'./configure’  and  it 
checks  the  resources  on  your  system 
against  the  requirements  ofthe 
Remembrance  Agent  source  code  and 
creates  the  appropriate  Makefile.  It’ll 
also  warn  you  if  any  ofthe  necessary 
components  are  missing.  So  I  compiled 
the  Remembrance  Agent  for  my  system 
by  running  './configure’  and  then 
'make’.  And  then  to  install  the  binaries 
and  man  pages  in  their  correct 
directories  I  ran  'make  install’  (make  and 
the  makefile  can  control  all  sorts  of 
operations,  not  just  compiles).  So  it’s 
not  that  tough,  really. 

Ifyou  take  a  look  through  the 
configure  script  you’ll  get  some  idea 
(even  ifyou’re  not  a  programmer)  ofthe 
considerable  platform  incompatibility 
problems  it  is  working  around.  But  don’t 
worry  too  much  about  Bradley  Rhodes 
and  his  team  getting  distracted  from  the 
core  project  having  to  deal  with  all  these 
cross-platform  niggles,  because  the 
creation  ofthe  configure  script  is  in  turn 
automated  by  a  utility  called  'autoconf’ 
(see  http://sourceware.cygnus.com 
/autoconf  for  details). 

■  Cat  and  Dog 

Ifyou  haven’t  compiled  source  code 
before,  try  your  luck  with  good-dog  from 
http://jl.photodex.com/dog/.  It’s  a 
simple  enough  piece  of  code  not  to  need 
any  ofthe  auto-configure  stuff- just 
compile  it  on  any  UNIX-like  system  that 
has  the  GNU  gcc  compiler. 

Dog  is  a  replacement  for  cat  (ifyou 
hadn’t  already  guessed),  the  not  very 
exciting  but  indispensable  utility  that 
squirts  files  into  stdout.  Dog  is  more 
exciting,  although  perhaps  not  entirely 
meriting  the  tongue-in-cheek  hype 
accorded  it  by  authors  Jason  Cohen 
<dogboy@photodex.com>  and  Jacob 


Leverich  <leverich@photodex.com>. 

"Dog  1 .3  is  riddled  with  incredible  new 
features,”  they  say.  Well...  it  emulates 
cat,  and  supports  network  sockets,  so 
you  can  treat  an  http  site  as  if  it  were  a 
file  and  squirt  it  straight  to  stdout  (which 
certainly  might  be  handy  in  a  script  for 
collecting  URLs  from  the  web,  say).  More 
immediately  useful  is  dog’s  ability  to 
translate  between  the  different  line 
endings  used  by  DOS,  the  Mac,  and 
UNIX.  Oh,  and  it  also  supports  the  k-rad 
filter 'to  convert  text  to  a  more  readable 
form’ (say  the  authors).  iFyou  Don’t 
knOW  WHa7  k-R4d  is,  7his  sHould  gIVe 
yOu  5oM3  ide4. 

■  Blink  and  you’ll  miss  it 

Fancy  a  utility  that  downloads  JPEGs  at 
random  from  the  web  and  continually 
redraws  them  on  the  background  ofyour 
X1 1  display?  Well,  yes,  you  can  probably 
think  ofa  possible  snag  with  that, 
particularly  ifyou’re  working  in  an  open 
office.  The  author  <dave@techweenie 
.net>,  is  aware  ofthe  problems  too,  and 
writes: 

“Blink  may 
very  well 
display 
something 
on  your 
computer 
that  you 
find 

offensive.  Don’t  blame  me.  This  is  the 
web,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  anything 
goes.  I  have  tried  to  filter  the  images 
somewhat,  but  this  is  by  no  means 
foolproof.” 

Ifyou’re  drawn  to  high-risk  situations 
(actually  the  few  times  I’ve  run  Blink  it 
has  only  thrown  up  uncontroversial 
backgrounds  like  the  one  pictured  in  the 


◄  If  you’ve  installed  Red  Hat 

6.0  AND  CHOSEN  THE  OPTION  TO 
BOOT  DIRECTLY  INTO  X,  THIS  IS 
THE  LOGIN  SCREEN  YOU  GET, 

OFFERING  A  CHOICE  OF  DESKTOPS. 

But  the  display  you  see  here  is 

RUNNING  ON  MY  NeXT  MACHINE, 
WHICH  HAS  CALLED  IT  UP  USING 
THE  QUERY  OPTION  TO  X 

screenshot  on  page  233)  you 
can  download  it  from 
www.techweenie  . net/d ave/. 

It’s  a  perl  script  and  as  written 
it  needs  the  graphics  utility  xv 
(but  that  should  be  easy 
enough  to  change).  It’s  best  if 
you  have  a  permanent  internet 
connection  or  don’t  care  too  much 
about  your  phone  bill! 

■  Like-minded  People 

Nick  Binns  <NickB@mediplus.co.uk> 

writes:  “As  Linux  is  growing  all  the  time, 
are  there  any  meetings  I  could  attend  to 
find  out  more.  I  am  still  unsure  about 
many  ofthe  issues  connected  with 
downloading  data.  I  know  that  I  should 
really  do  this  on  the  internet,  but  getting 
together  with  like-minded  people  can  be 
useful.” 

I  suggested  Nickvisitwww.ukuug.org 
(The  UK  Unix  User  Group)  -  Linux  groups 
in  the  UK  are  listed  there,  as  well  as  more 
general  UNIX  groups  (which  mostly  tend 
to  be  pretty  clued  up  and  sympathetic  to 
Linux  anyway). 

Linux  evangelist  and  distributor 
Martin  Houston  <mhouston@deluxe- 

tech.co.uk>  has  sent  me  details  about 
the  Linux  '99  Conference,  which  was  held 
by  the  UK  Unix  User  Group  injune.  The 
aim  ofthe  conference  is  to  provide  talks, 
forums  and 
'clinics’  for 
developers,  users 
and  businesses 
interested  in  Linux. 
The  100 

or  so  people  who 
attended  may  well 
have  expected  the 
usual  discussions  about  Linux  maturing 
from  a  hobby  to  a  full-scale  business 
proposition,  and  technical  analysis  of 
recent  features  like  symmetrical 
multiprocessing  and  support  for  the  new 
high-performance  120  architecture  (from 
the  Linux  kernel  guru  Alan  Cox).  But 
there  were  also  less  conventional 
offerings,  likejohn  Adams’  explanation 


Even  with  all  the  publicity 
that  Linux  gets,  it's  still 
worth  noting  that  there 
are  other  free  UNIXes 


2341 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


of  how  he  uses  the  ARM  port  of  Linux  in 
the  creation  of  androids. 

■  The  XDMCP  Adventure,  Part  II 

Last  month  I  began  raving  aboutXDMCP 
and  gave  you  enough  details,  I  hope,  to 
have  a  crack  at  getting  started  with  it. 
You’ll  need  a  minimum  oftwo  machines, 
each  running  an  OS  that  supports  X.  I’ve 
been  using  a  mixture  ofXs  for  this,  mostly 
XFree86  on  several  different  Linux 
distributions,  but  including  IBM’sX 
implementation  for  AIX  and  the  Cube’X 
server  available  for  NeXTSTep. 

As  I  explained  last  month,  the  xdm  X 
Display  Manager  comes  as  standard  with 
X,  so  you  almost  certainly  already  have  it 
installed,  even  ifyou’re  not  running  it.  To 
see  whether  it’s  running,  type  something 


...where  <othermachine>  is  the  host 
name  ofthe  remote  machine.  Ifthe 
remote  machine’s  xdm  is  running 
correctly  you  should  get  a  login  prompt. 
Respond  with  your  username  and 
password,  and  lo,  you  find  yourself,  as  it 
were,  sitting  at  the  other  machine. 

Did  that  fail  foryou  with  something 
like  'Fatal  Server  Error:  Server  is  already 
active...’?  That  means  that  you’re  already 
running  an  X-based  desktop  on  the  local 
machine.  Never  mind,  you  don’t  have  to 
take  that  down.  This  time  type: 

This  invites  a  newX  server  to  come  up 
on  the  same  monitor  (typically  at  VT8 
instead  ofthe  usual  VT7  ifyou’re  running 
Linux).  Now  you  can  use  whatever  local 


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▲  This  is  what  you  get  when  you  call  up 

THE  AIX  CHOOSER  OVER  THE  NETWORK  —  NOT 
JUST  A  CHOICE  OF  DESKTOPS,  A  CHOICE  OF 
LOGGING  INTO  ANY  OF  THE  MACHINES  ON  THE 
NETWORK  RUNNING  XDM  OR  ONE  OF  ITS 

variants.  You’ll  notice  that  my  sinatra 

SERVER  IS  OFFERING  METAFRAME,  WHICH  IS 
THE  ClTRIX-FLAVORED  VERSION  OF 

Microsoft’s  Windows  NT  Terminal 
Server 

like  'ps  ax  |  grep  dm’  (the  ps  flags  vary 
somewhat  between  UNIXdistros)  at  the 
command  line.  That’s  'dm’  ratherthan 
'xdm’  because  there  are  some  variants, 
like  gdm  and  kdm,  the  Gnome  and  KDE 
versions  respectively. 

If  it’s  not  running,  just  run  it.  It  reads 
some  configuration  files  (in  somewhere 
like  /etc/X1 1  /xdm)  on  powering  up,  but 
in  my  experience  these  will  already  have 
been  correctly  set  up  for  general  use.  The 
only  problem  I  had  was  with  the  gdm 
supplied  with  Red  Hat  6.0,  which  I 
couldn’t  get  to  work  at  all.  But  xdm  and 
kdm  are  on  the  same  distribution,  and 
they  work  fine. 

OK,  lets  say  that  you  now  have  xdm 
running  on  two  or  more  machines  on 
your  network.  Go  to  the  machine  with 
the  best  video  card  and  monitor,  become 
root  at  a  virtual  terminal  and  from  the 
command  line  type: 


arrangements  there  are  for  switching 
between  X:0  and  X:1  (under  Linux  it’ll  be 
something  like  Ctl-Alt-F7  and  Ctl-Alt-F8. 

Here’s  one  great  use  for  XDMCP.  As 
I  mentioned  last  month,  I  have  here  on 
loan  from  Siemens  a  very  powerful  dual 
processor  Celsius  2000  technical 
workstation.  Unfortunately  its  Diamond 
Fire  4000  Pro  video  card  is  not  supported 
by  Linux.  No  matter  -  I  simply  run  the 
Celsius  via  XDMCP  from  my  IBM  PC315. 
And  from  the  same  IBM  machine  I  can 
switch  around  between  the  Celsius  and 
any  other  machine  on  the  network. 

Another  way  to  use  XDMCP  is  by  way 
ofthe  intermediate  'chooser’  utility  that 
comes  as  part  ofxdm.  The  equivalent  on 
AIX  is  called  dtchooser  (under  AIX  the 
XDM  stuff  seems  to  be  all  part  of  CDE  in 
the  /usr/dt  directory).  I  don’t  have  to 
worry  what  the  chooser  utility  is  called, 
because  the  XDMCP  call  over  the 
network  will  kick  it  off  automatically 
when  I  do: 

...from  another  machine  on  the  network. 
As  you’ll  have  guessed,  'aixbox’  is  the 
hostname  of  my  PowerPC-based  AIX 


server.  This  time  instead  of  putting  me 
onto  the  AIX  desktop,  dtchooser  powers 
up,  scans  the  network  for  listeningXDM 
machines  and  after  a  short  delay  presents 
me  with  a  list  ofthem  to  choose  from 
(see  the  screenshot  on  this  page). 

If  you  have  a  network,  however  small, 
that  is  running  more  than  one  operating 
system  that  supports  X  (and  there  are  X 
servers  for  Windows  too),  do  give  this 
XDM  stuff  a  go,  ifyou  haven’t  already. 
And,  as  ever,  drop  me  an  email  to  let  me 
know  how  you  get  on. 

■  Other  free  U  NIXes 

Paul  Lee  <woodruff@stayfree.co.ul<> 

raises  the  perennial  question:  Why  Linux? 

"Please  do  not  interpret  this  email  as 
a  criticism  ofyour  fine  column.  It  isn’t. 
Even  considering  all  the  publicity  that 
Linux  gets,  it’s  still  worth  noting  that 
there  are  other  free  U NIXes  out  there, 
and  wondering  why  Linux  is  taking  off 
exponentially  and  they  are  not.  The 
UNIXes  I  am  on  about  are  the  BSD’s, 
Open,  Free  and  Net.  Each  seems  to  offer 
its  own  specialisation. 

Yes,  I  agree,  Paul,  and  I  do  get  mail 
about  this  from  time  to  time,  suggesting 
that  I  put  too  much  of  an  emphasis  on 
Linux.  I  suppose  a  glib  answer  would  be 
that  Linux  is  easier  to  install  on  a  wider 
range  of  hardware,  and  the  benefits  of 
the  alternatives  are  too  marginal  to  make 
an  impact. 

The  'specialisation’  you  talk  about  is 
a  problem  for  a  column  like  this.  The 
historical  reasons  for  the  fragmentation 
of  BSD  are  fascinating,  but  obviously 
don’t  help  ordinary  users  get  a  coherent 
picture  ofwhat  UNIX  is.  It’s  true  that 
there  are  a  variety  of  Linux  distributions, 
but  they’ll  all  fundamentally  the  same 
operating  system  once  installed. 

My  take  on  this  question  is  that  I’m 
writing  the  UNIX  column,  not  the  Linux 
or  BSD  column.  Essentially  I’m  trying  to 
get  to  the  heart  ofwhat  UNIX  is  all 
about,  and  it  seems  to  make  sense  to 
focus  on  the  UNIX  that  most  of  my 
readers  seem  to  be  using,  if  I  can  do  this 
without  getting  too  bogged  down  in 
Linux-specific  issues. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Chris  Bidmead  welcomes  your  comments 
on  the  Unix  column.  Contact  him  via 
the  PCW  editorial  office  or  email 
unix@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


[235 


Theoretically  tweaking 

Promises,  promises!  Terence  Green  bites  off  more  than  he  can  chew  pairing  ofFWindows  and  OS/2 


It  was  a  mistake  to  make  a  noise  in 
the  last  column  about  shifting 
back  to  networking  questions  after 
the  DOIP  months!  Not  long  after 
that  an  email  from  Rupert  Russell 
recalled  my  earlier  promise  to  write 
something  about  the  pitfalls  of 
connecting  Windows  and  OS/2 
machines.  'Have  you  ducked  out  or  is  this 
promised  article  just  undergoing  a  final 
polish?/  asks  Rupert.  Ouch! 

The  truth  is,  I  chickened  out.  I  have  a 
network  consisting  of  several  PCs  running 
multiple  operating  systems  -  OS/2, 
Windows  and  NetWare -and  my  original 
plan  was  to  banish 
IPX  and  NETBEUI 
in  order  to  run 
TCP/IP  only.  This 
works  perfectly 
until  you  want  to 
share  drives  and 
printers. 

Windows  and 
OS/2  machines 
require  NETBIOS 
in  order  to  make 
shared  resources 
visible  to  each 
other.  If  I  leave 
NETBEUI,  a 
specialised 
workgroup  protocol 
which  (as  its  name 
implies)  supports  NETBIOS,  on  the 
Microsoft  systems  and  run  IBM 
NETBIOS  on  the  Warp  systems, 
everything  works  fine.  However,  dumping 
NETBEUI  is  easier  said  than  done. 

In  theory  one  simply  removes  NETBEUI 
on  the  Windows  PCs  and  replaces  OS/2 
NETBIOS  on  Warp  with  IBM  NETBIOS 
overTCP/IP.  I  started  working  through  it, 
reading  relevant  messages  in  the 
comp.sys.os.os2.*  groups  on  Usenet, 
and  rifling  through  the  IBM  technical 
documents  on  the  Internet. 

I  really  thought  I  could  handle  it.  But 
then  it  all  got  horribly  complicated  and  I 
gave  up.  IBM’s  installer  for  NETBIOS 
overTCP/IP  needs  to  be  manually 
tweaked  as  it  doesn’t  always  edit  the  INI 
files  correctly  and,  although  the  later 


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"■■■-  -  'IJBjlUIMin  »—*■  - 


A  A  LONG  FILENAME  ON  AN  OS/2 
Warp  4.0  client  viewed  from  the 
Windows  98  Explorer 


Windows  operating  systems  (95/98/NT) 
do  NETBIOS  over  TCP/IP  by  default, 
there  are  differences  in  the  protocol 
implementations  which  can  lead  to 
frustration. 

Admittedly  I  didn’t  try  very  hard 
before  giving  up.  But  the  fact  that 
everything  works  just  fine  when  NETBIOS 
is  installed  on  both  the  Windows 
machines  and  the  Warp  systems 
tempered  my  desire  to  get  the  TCP/IP- 
only  solution  working.  Eventually  I 
decided  that  NETBEUI  on  Windows 
coupled  with  Warp’s  OS/2  NETBIOS 
works  very  well  and  I  can  heartily 
recommend  it!  But,  now  that  Russell  has 
called  my  bluff  I  plan  to  have  another  go 
at  creating  a  step-by-step  guide. 

Russell  also  says  that  he  has  problems 


◄  Files  with 

LONG  NAMES  CAN 
BE  MOVED 
BETWEEN  SHARED 
DRIVES  IN 

Windows  and 
OS/2  Warp  4.0 

using  the  tape 
machine  on  his 
OS/2  Warp  3 
Connect  machine 
to  backup 
Windows  95 
machines  across 
*’  the  network 

because  Windows 
appears  to 

truncate  long  filenames  when  sending  a 
file  to  the  OS/2  system.  He  says  this 
happens  even  though  his  Windows  95 
system  can  get  long  filenames  from  the 
OS/2  PC.  I’m  not  sure  of  my  facts  with 
respect  to  Warp  3,  but  I  don’t  see  this 
problem  in  a  Warp  4/Windows  98 
combination. 

As  you  can  see  from  the  screen  shots  I 
used  Windows  File  Manager  to  create  a 
file  called  'A  long  name  for  a 
document.txt’  on  a  shared  Warp  drive 
and  copied  the  file  back  and  forth 
without  seeing  any  truncation.  I  suspect 
the  problem  on  the  OS/2  machine  might 
be  down  to  the  OS/2  tape  backup 
application  rather  than  Windows.  So,  if 
any  readers  know  the  answers  to  any  of 
the  above  problems,  fire  away! 

■  Free  ISPs  revisited 

The  recent  columns  on  connecting  to  free 
ISPs  generated  a  large  number  of 
responses  and  questions.  I’m  sorry  I 
haven’t  been  able  to  reply  to  every  email 
but  I  have  tried  to  put  all  the  information 
into  the  column.  As  ever,  it’s  prepared 
some  months  ahead  ofthe  publication 
date,  so  you  might  only  see  a  question 
answered  some  months  after  you  send  it 
in.  Previously  we  mentioned  FreeServe 
and  BT  Click  in  the  column  but  there  are 
now  over  a  dozen  free  ISPs  and  it’s  well 
worth  experimenting. 

Several  people  have  recommended 
alternative  free  ISPs  and  a  couple  have 


236 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


complained  about  a  slow  response  on 
FreeServe.  It’s  possible  that  FreeServe  is 
slow  because  of  its  rapid  growth  from 
zero  to  more  than  one  million  users. 
Certainly  I’ve  noticed  that  the  response 
on  my  paid  ISP  (cix.co.uk)  is  much  faster 
than  FreeServe,  but  then  CIX  only  has  a 
tad  over  1 0,000  users. 

Roger  Provins  says  he  has  successfully 
signed  up  with  Freedotnet  ( :dn. co.uk) 
after  using  AOL  for  several  years.  Roger 
used  the  older  1 6-bit  AOL  Windows 
software  in  a  Win-OS/2  session  but  says 
now  he  has  moved  to  OS/2  and 
Netscape  4.4  on  Freedotnet,  his 
download  speeds  have  improved  to 
around  5.2Kbit/sec  most  ofthe  time. 

Clive  Shearsby  suggests 
Free-Online  at  www. free- 
online. net  because  it  claims 
to  support  everything  from 
Windows  to  Linux  and 
mobile  phones.  Clive  also 
mentioned  in  passingthat 
he  has  struck  it  lucky  with 
Fix  Pack  40  (for  Warp  3). 

He  runs  a  Cyrix  PI  66  CPU 
which  reacted  poorly  to  Fix 
Pack  30.  Since  upgrading  to 
Fix  Pack  40,  Clive’s  system 
has  been  fine. 


Steve  Caine  wrote  in 

asking  what  had  happened 
to  the  www.internic.com 

site  I  mentioned  in  regard  to 
domain  name  searches.  Well, 
it  seems  that  in  between  writing  the 


List-less  modems 


◄  Adobe 
Acrobat 
Reader  version 
3.0  for  OS/2 

LANGUISHES  A 
LITTLE  BEHIND 
OTHER  VERSIONS 


column  and  its  publication  my  advice 
regarding  InterNIC  was  rendered 
obsolete  by  events. 

The  InterNIC  site  was  maintained  by 
Network  Solutions  Inc.  (NSI),  which 
controlled  domain  name  registrations  for 
the  .com,  .net  and  .org  top-level  domains 
from  1 993.  This  changed  recently  when  a 
new  'Shared  Registration  System’  was 
introduced.  The  new  system  is  being 
managed  by  the  Internet  Corporation  for 
Assigned  Names  and  Numbers  (ICANN), 
a  non-profit-making  corporation 
controlled  by  the  Internet  community, 
and  they  have  had  a  few  disagreements 
with  NSI  -  resulting  in  some  hiccups  in 
the  introduction  ofthe  new  system. 

But,  you  can  now  go  to  NSI’s  new  site 
atwww.networksolutions.com  to  check 
the  availability  of.com,  .net  and  .org 
domains.  Ifyou’re  after  UK  domains 
(co.uk,  org.uk,  net.uk,  ltd.uk  and  plc.uk) 
try  Nominet  at  www.nominet.org.uk. 


AHOTjAVA  3.0  SUFFERS  FROM  THE 
USUAL  COMPLAINT  FOR  JAVA 
PROGRAMS  RUNNING  ON  OS/2  IN 
THAT  IT  IS  DISAPPOINTING 


■  Acrobatics 

I’ve  had  a  few 
requests,  in 

particular  from  Cecil  Wallis  and  Holger 
Granholm,  to  put  the  OS/2  version  of 
Adobe  Acrobat  on  the  cover  CD.  After 
earlier  problems  with  applications  I 
decided  to  stick  to  putting  Fix  Packs, 
Netscape  and  Java  updates  on  the  cover 
CD,  when  space  allows.  But  the  Adobe 
Acrobat  licence  says  it  may  be  freely 
distributed  and  it’s  only  4Mb  so  you 
should  see  it  on  the  next  CD.  As  we  have 
come  to  expect,  the  OS/2  offering 
languishes  at  version  3.0,  while  the  rest 
ofthe  world  can  now  download  4.0.  But 
if  we  wanted  to  run  the  latest  software 
we  wouldn’t  be  using  Warp,  would  we? 

While  online  at  Adobe  I  also  grabbed 
the  preview  version  ofthe  Acrobat  Viewer 
for  Java.  The  documentation  says  it 
needs  the  latest  Java  version  1 .1 .8  so  I 
downloaded  the  1 .1 .8  Preview  for  OS/2 
from  IBM,  only  to  find  that  the  Adobe 


installation 
program  is 
faulty. 
Apparently 
it’s  a  known 
problem. 

Flushed 
with  my  lack 
of  Java 
success  I 

downloaded  Hotjava3.0 
from  Sun  and  tried  that 
on  Preview  1 .1 .8.  This  is  a 
lightweight  browser,  also 
available  as  a JavaBean 
component,  which  installs 
and  runs  on  OS/2  Java. 

Having  been  very 
enthusiastic  aboutjava  to 
start  with,  because  it 
offered  the  prospect  of 
new  applications  for 
OS/2,  I’ve  been 
disappointed  by  the 
reality.  Java  works  well 
inside  banks  and  financial 
organisations  and  is 
widely  used  on  servers. 
But,  it  looks  like  we’ll  have 
to  wait  a  while  yet  for 
mainstream  applications 
for  OS/2  clients,  even  though  every  Java 
benchmark  thus  far  has  shown  the  OS/2 
implementation  to  be  a  stormer. 

Undeterred,  we  hope  to  put  the 
released  Java  1 .1 .8  code  onto  the  cover 
CD.  This  won’t  be  ready  in  time  for  the 
next  issue  but  we  hope  to  place  it  on  the 
December  cover.  We’re  also  waiting  for  a 
July  refresh  ofthe  Netscape  4.4  code  and 
a  rumoured  4.5  version  for  OS/2.  We’ll 
put  all  this  on  the  cover  at  the  earliest 
opportunity,  but  don’t  hold  your  breath 
-  space  on  the  cover  CD  for  OS/2 
material  is  becoming  increasingly  less 
available. 

PCW  CONTACTS 


Terence  Green  welcomes  your  feedback 
on  the  OS/2  column.  Contact  him  via 
the  PCW  editorial  office  or  email 

os2@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


137 


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I  wo  rd  processing 


Time  for  embed 

Tim  Nott  on  how  to  ensure  that  your  nicely  formatted  documents  make  sense  at  the  other  end. 


Last  month  I  mentioned  one  of 
the  hazards  of  emailing  Word 
files,  in  that  they  might 
contain  information  that  is 
apparently  deleted,  but  can 
be  seen  when  loaded  into  a  text  editor. 
Another  common  problem  with 
electronically  transmitted  documents  is 
WYSINWTG  —  what  you  see  is  not  what 
they  get.  If  you  email  someone  a 
document  or  send  it  on  disk,  they’ll  only 
see  the  fonts  that  are  installed  on  their 
own  system.  So,  if  you’ve  formatted  all 
your  headings  in  a  tasteful  Copperplate 
Gothic  and  the  recipient  doesn’t  have  the 
font  installed,  then  another  font  will  be 
substituted,  ruining  your  creative  efforts. 
Even  worse,  ifyou’ve  used  a  non¬ 
standard  symbol  or  foreign  language 
font,  such  as  the  Lotus  Maths  symbols  or 
WordPerfect  Arabic,  then  if  the  font  isn’t 
installed  on  the  recipient’s  PC  the  result 
will  be  garbage. 


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A  Embedding  fonts 
in  WordPerfect 


traditional 
email,  the  paper 
product  means 
the  recipient 
doesn’t  have  to 
be  seated  at  a 


There  are  several  ways  around  this 
problem.  The  easiest  is  to  use  the 
technology  known  as  Portable  All- 
Purpose  Electronic  Rendering  (PAPER). 

This  ensures  that  fonts  and  graphics 
reach  the  recipient  in  exactly  the  same 
state  as  they  appear  when  printed  from 
your  PC.  Although  transmission  isn’t 
quite  as  fast  as 

Word  isn’t  very  good 
at  realising  that  the 
bold  and  italic  files 
need  embedding 

computerto 
read  them. 

A  second  way  is  to  adopt  the 
technology  PCW  uses  for  the  Hands  On 
back  issues,  when  they  appear  on  the 
CD-ROM  (for  space  reasons,  not  this 
month).  Adobe  Acrobat  provides  a  way 
ofviewing  pages  as  the  originator 
intended,  regardless  of  installed  fonts  or 
operating  system  -  as  long  as  they  have 
the  Acrobat  reader.  The  disadvantage  of 
this  method  is  that  usually  you  need  the 
Acrobat  Distiller  software  to  create  the 
Portable  Document  Format  (PDF)  files 
after  they’ve  been  written  in  the 
originating  word  processor.  Version  9  of 


Word  Perfect, 
however, 
includes  an 
option  to 
publish  straight 
to  PDF. 

The  third 

way,  should 
you  be 
unwilling  to 
confine 
yourself  to  the 
standard 
Windows  core 
fonts,  is  to  use 
Font  Embedding. 

This,  as  the  name 
suggests,  wraps 
up  a  copy  ofthe 

font  file  within  the  document  file,  so  if 
the  former  isn’t  installed  at  the 
destination,  the  characters  can  still  be 
displayed  from  the  embedded  copy. 

All  the  big  three  word  processors 
support  font  embedding  —  though 
WordPerfect  has  only  just  caught  up  in 
version  9.  In  WordPro,  this  is  in 
Document  Properties,  Document, 
Options.  In  WordPerfect,  there’s  a 
checkbox  in  the  Save  As  dialog,  and  in 
Word  it’s  in  the  Tools,  Options,  Save 

dialog  —  where  there’s 
also  an  option 
to  embed  just 
the  characters 
used  in  the 
document. 

This  cuts  down 
on  the  file  size 
but  obviously  the  recipient  won’t 
be  able  to  edit  the  text  set  in  that 
font. 

However,  embedding  has  its 
drawbacks.  Fora  start,  it  can 
make  substantial  differences  to 
file  size,  especially  if  several  fonts 
are  involved.  A  further  point  is 
that  fonts  -  like  other  software  - 
are  protected 

►“Everything  you 

WANTED  TO  KNOW 
ABOUT  FONTS,  BUT 
WERE  AFRAID  TO  ASK 


irl 


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the  font  to  decide  whether  to  allow 
embedding. 

There  are  four  levels  of  embedding 
permission.  The  most  generous  -  which 
you’ll  see  in  the  Windows  core  fonts  and 
other  free  fonts  that  can  be  downloaded 
from  the  Microsoft  site  mentioned  below 
is  ‘Installable’.  Legally,  this  means  the 
font  can  be  both  embedded  in  a 
document  and  installed  on  the  remote 
machine.  The  latter  should  happen 
automatically,  but  I  have  noticed  Word 
isn’t  very  good  at  realising  that  the  bold 
and  italic  files  need  embedding  as  well. 
My  experiments  showed  that  only  the 


Georgia.TTF  Properties 


Features  |  Links 
CharSet/Unicode  |  Version 
General 


nrn 

j  Description  j  License 
1  Hinting/Font  Smoothing  j  Names 


Embedding 


Embeddability  for  this  font 
Installable  embedding  allowed 


by  copyright 
and  licence 
agreements, 
and  it’s  up  to 
the  creator  of 


Description  of  possible  embedding  settings 

Installable  embedding  allowed;  fonts  may  be  embedded  in 
documents  and  permanently  installed  on  the  remote  system. 


Editable  embedding  allowed;  fonts  may  be  embedded  in 
documents,  but  must  only  be  installed  temporarily  on  the 
remote  system. 

Print  &  Preview  embedding  allowed;  fonts  may  be  embedded 
in  documents,  but  must  only  be  installed  temporarily  on  the 
remote  system.  Documents  can  only  be  opened  read-only. 


Restricted  licence  embedding.  No  Embedding  allowed;  font 
may  not  be  embedded  in  document. 


OK 


Cancel 


Apply 


238 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Questions 


oc  answers 


QIn  Word  971  am  able 
to  rotate  text  in  tables 
using  Format,  Text 
Direction.  It's  very  useful 
for  lengthy  column  head¬ 
ings,  for  example,  where 
contents  of  the  cells  below 
are  short.  Is  it  possible  to 
do  a  similar  trick  with 
WordPerfect,  which  I  now 
use  at  work? 

Yolande  Ferrier 


a 


Yes  —  highlight  the 
cells  to  rotate,  then 


right-click.  Format,  Cell. 

Select  the  angle  from  the 
Rotate  list.  Note  that 
WordPerfect  actually  places 
the  text  in  a  frame,  which  —  if 
you’re  not  careful  —  can  be 
dragged  out  of  the  table.  If 
you  want  to  edit  the  text,  click 
on  it.  This  will  open  the  text 
box  in  a  new  window,  which  is 
a  little  disconcerting  if  the  doc¬ 
ument  is  maximised  in 
WordPerfect,  as  it  appears 
that  the  rest  of  it  has  disap¬ 
peared.  Make  the  changes, 
close  the  window,  and  the 
table  will  return,  reflecting  the 
changes. 

QI  want  to  produce  a 
set  of  fifty  sequential¬ 
ly-numbered,  but  otherwise 


* 


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1  ! 


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IKS-  m-ta-m 

13 

■  H  J  U  * 

i“  ■  c  fiw-1'  r  ^  □  +  i 

r  : 

◄Turning  the  macro, 

tables  in  then  for- 

WordPerfect  mat  the 

text,  I  can't 
cancel  the  selection  by  click¬ 
ing  with  the  mouse  until  I 
stop  the  recorder. 

K  Roland 


identical  certificates  in 
Word.  Is  this  possible? 

Alan  Davis 


a 


The  purist’s  way  of 
doing  this  would  be  to 


write  a  macro  that  used  a 
For...  Next  loop  to  print  a 
copy,  increase  the  number, 
print  another  copy,  and  so  on. 
Another  way  would  be  to  do  a 
mail  merge,  with  just  the 
sequential  numbers  in  the  data 
source.  An  easier  way  is  to  use 
the  page  numbering  feature  of 
Word.  Choose  Field  from  the 
Insert  menu,  then  Page  from 
the  Numbering  category.  If  you 
don’t  want  to  start  at  the 
number  one,  then  Insert,  Page 
Numbers...  and  hit  the  Format 


button.  Enter  the  ‘Start  at’ 
number,  OK  out  of  the  Format 
dialog,  and  hit  the  Close, 
rather  than  OK  button  in  the 
Page  Numbers  dialog.  Put  a 
page  break  (Control  +  Enter) 
at  the  bottom  of  the  page, 
then  copy  and  paste  to  get  the 
required  number  of  pages. 
Select  all  the  pages  and  press 
F9  to  update  the  page  number 
fields.  Then  print.  If  the  cer¬ 
tificates  contain  graphics, 
make  sure  the  files  are  linked 
to,  rather  than  stored  in,  the 
document  —  this  will  make  a 
dramatic  difference  in  file  size. 

Qlf  I  select  all  text 
(Control  +  A)  while  I 
am  recording  a  Word 


a 


You’ll  find  that  you 
can’t  move  the  cursor 


a 


Yes  —  if  you  select 
‘ Find  file ’  rather  than 


with  the  mouse  at  all  when 
recording,  as  neither  VBA  nor 
WordBasic  support  mouse 
actions  of  this  type.  Use  the 
Flome,  End,  Page  Up/ Down 
and  arrow  keys  instead. 

QBack  in  the  days  of 
yore  (Windows  3.1  and 
Word  2.0)  I  used  to  be  able 
to  display  a  list  of  all  my 
Word  files,  which  showed 
the  contents  of  the  docu¬ 
ments  for  each  file.  Can  it 
be  done  with  Win  98  and 
Word  7?  Also  is  there  any 
way  of  deleting  a  file  from 
inside  Word  7? 

Peter  Moyes 


‘Open’  from  the  File  menu  you 
are  presented  with  a  dialog 
which  includes  an  Options 
button  —  and  one  of  those 
options  is  to  preview  the  file 
content.  The  same  dialog  also 
has  a  Delete  button. 


normal  file  was  embedded  and  that 
italicising  and  emboldening  were  done 
by  slanting  or  thickening  the  normal 
font,  which  is  a  hideous  compromise. 
The  second  level  is 
‘Editable'.  This 
means  the  fonts 
can’t  be  installed 
permanently  on 
the  recipient 
machine  but  the  document  using  them 
can  be  edited.  Getting  more  restrictive, 
‘Print  and  Preview'  embedding  lets  the 
recipient  see  but  not  touch  —  much  the 
same  as  an  Acrobat  document  —  and 
finally ‘Restricted  Licence’  embedding 
means  you  can’t  include  the  font  in  a 


document  at  all.  Just  to  confuse  matters, 
most  ofthe  symbol  and  special  language 
fonts  that  come  with  WordPerfect  9  are 
in  the  last  category.  However,  you  can 
embed  them  in 
Word  Perfect 
documents  —  but 
not  elsewhere.  Just 
to  add  a  little  more 
confusion,  neither 
Word  nor  WordPro  seem  able  to  tell  you 
ifyou're  trying  to  embed  a  non- 
embeddable  font  -  the  process  fails  with 
no  warning. 

So  how  can  you  tell  the  embedding 
status  of  a  font?  The  answer  is  to 


download  the  free  Font  Properties 
Extension  tool  from  www.eu.microsoft 
/typography.  As  well  as  addressing  this 
problem  it  also  adds  several  pages  of 
information  to  a  font's  properties, 
including  description,  the  character  sets 
included,  hinting/smoothing  and  other 
essential  information  for  font  junkies. 
Since  I  last  mentioned  this  (July  98)  it's 
been  updated,  and  there  is  also  a  good 
selection  of  free  fonts  at  the  same  site. 

PCW  CONTACTS _ 

Tim  Nott  welcomesyour  comments  on  the 
Word  Processingcolumn.  Contact  him  via 
the  PCW  editorial  office  or  email 
wp@pcw.co.uk 


‘ Restricted  Licence ’ 
means  that  you  can’t 
embed  the  font  at  all 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


539 


\Vt| 


Jtk 


J_n 


spreadsheets 


Counting  the  days 

Steve  Wells  reveals  the  hidden  day-counting  functions  to  save  you  from  a  laborious  DIY  job 


Andy  Caddy  and  Bill 

Alexander  have  both  sent 
me  listings  offunctions 
they  have  created  for 
countingthe  number  of 
working  days  between  two  dates.  Andy’s 
is  a  very  fancy  affair  (much  too  long  to 
list  here)  that  expresses  the  difference  in 
hours  and  minutes,  and  even  features  a 
worksheet  with  spinners  on  it  for 
inputting  the  start  and  end  dates  and 
times  [Fig  1  ].  His  home-grown  function, 
World ngTime(Start_Ti me,  End_Time), 
omits  Saturdays,  Sundays  and  several 
Bank  Holidays,  specified  by  actual  dates 
listed  in  the  macro  for  1 999  and  2000, 
and  only  counts  the  hours  between  8am 
and  5pm. 

Bill’s  WorkDays(  From  Date,  To  Date) 
function  is  a  much  more  basic  affair, 
simply  counting  days  between  two  dates, 
leaving  out  the  weekends,  although  the 
listing  is  lengthy. 

Many  readers  may  not  realise  that 
since  Version  4,  Excel  has  provided  a 
NETWORKDAYS  function.  This  counts 
the 

number  of 
workdays, 
net  of 
weekends, 
between 

two  dates.  Ifyou  can’t  find  it,  choose 
Tools,  Add-Ins  and  see  that  the  Analysis 
ToolPak  Add-In  is  checked.  Ifthe 
ToolPak  isn’t  listed,  go  to  Control  Panel, 
Add/Remove  Programs  and  load  it  from 
your  Office  or  Excel  CD-ROM. 

▼Fig  2  Calculating  the  date 

DIFFERENTIAL,  OR  TIME  ELAPSED  OVER  A 
PERIOD,  USING  THREE  VARIATIONS  OF 

Excel’s  DATEDIF  function 


X  Microsoft  Excel  -  datedif.xls 


X  Microsoft  Excel  -  WorkingTime.xls 

r 

File  Edit 

View  Insert 

Format  Tools 

Data 

Window 

Help 

◄  Fig  1  Andy 

Caddy’s  worksheet 

□  &  s 

Efe  l|  ]f 

fcO  -  ra 

FOR  CALCULATING 

THE  HOURS  WORKS  IN 

Arial 

-  10  -1 

IF' 

U 

ir  H 

m 

i 

A  CERTAIN  PERIOD, 

B13 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


Zl 


A 


=workingtime(A1 1  ,B1 1) 


B 


Sat  5/6/99  12:00  Sat  19/6/99  12:00 


80:00  li 


D  H  M 


D  H  M 


AND  WEEKENDS 


can  use  the 
Custom 
format  0 
Tours’  and 
Excel  will 
display  1 05 
hours. 


Excel  will  recognise  a  number 
of  1-2-3  functions  and 
DATEDIF  is  one  of  them 


The  NETWORKDAYS  function  takes 
three  arguments:  start_date,  end_date, 
and  holidays.  All  three  have  to  be  entered 
as  serial  date  numbers.  The  easiest  way 
to  do  this  is  enterthe  dates  in  cells 
(formatted  to  display  however  you  like) 
and  then  use  cell  references  for  the 

arguments. 

You  could  put 
the  start  date 
in  A1,  the  end 
date  in  A2,  and 
list  the  dates  of 
Bank  Holidays  or  other  dates  to  exclude 
in  G1  :G1 2.  Then  enter 
=NETWORKDAYS(A1  ,A2,G1  :G1 2) 

Ifyou  work  a  seven-and-a-half-hour 
day  and  want  to  calculate  how  many 
hours  you  worked  from  Monday  August 
1 6th  to  Friday  September  3rd,  enter 
those  dates  in  A1  and  A2  and  (a  Bank 
Holiday)  30/8/99  in  G1 .  In  A3  enter 
=(NETWORKDAYS(A1  ,A2,G1  )*7.5)  You 


File  Edit  View  Insert  Format  Tools  Data  Window  Help 


□  &  y 

a  sp 

£  %  e>  ^ 

i a 

)  -  r*  - 

*  * 

E  f*  zl  aI 

m  *  9. 

A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F  "'IF  G  1 

1  H 

1 

Purchased  Sold  Years 

Months  Days 

2 

1/1/98]"  30/6/99  ]t 

5 

29 

3 

4 

=DATEDIF(A2,B2,yi 

=DATEDIF(A2,B2,,,md") 

5 

6 

I _ =DATEDIF(A2,B2,,Vrn") 

7 

There  is 
another 
function 

you  can  use  for  date-difference 
calculations,  although  it  is 
undocumented  in  the  Excel  function 
listings  or  Help  files.  It  is  the  Lotus  1  -2-3 
function,  DATEDIF.  There  are  a  number 
of  1  -2-3  functions  that  Excel  will 
recognise  and  this  is  one  ofthem.  Ifthe 
start  date  ofa  period  is  in  A1  and  the  end 
date  is  in  A2,  and  you  want  to  count  the 
days,  enter  =DATEDIF(A1,A2  “d”).To 
count  the  years  use  ‘y’  and  the  months 
use  ‘m’.  To  count  days  ignoring  months 
and  years,  use  ‘md’.  Count  months 
ignoring  years  with  ‘ym.’  Count  days 
ignoring  years  with  ‘yd.’ An  example  of  its 
use  would  be  in  an  inventory,  [Fig  2].  An 
item  purchased  on  Jan  1  st  ’98  and  sold 
on  June  30th  ’99  would  have  been  owned 
for  one  year,  five  months,  and  29  days. 

Ifyou  just  want  to  calculate  the  time 
of  an  event  like  a  boat  race  or  a  flight, 
you  don’t  even  need  a  function.  Custom 
format  cell  A3  h  ‘hours’  mm  ‘mins’  and 
enterthe  formula  A2-A1 .  Enter 
2/1 0/99  6  PM  in  A1  (leave  a  space 
before  the  PM)  and  enter  3/10/99  9:47 
AM  in  A2.  Cell  A3  will  display  1 5  hours 
47  mins,  which  is  the  correct  duration. 

■  Optional  printing 

Barry  McAleenan  and  Jim  Turner  have 
similar  printing  problems  and  ifyou 
have  an  answer  I’ll  pass  it  on  to  them. 
Coincidentally,  they  both  reminisce 
about  the  past.  Barry  uses  Lotus  1-2-3 


240 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Questions 


&  answers 


QI  am  employed  by  a 
construction  company 
that  has  a  number  of 
remote  sites,  linked  by  a 
WAN.  Each  of  these  sites 
updates  a  progress  report.  I 
then  pull  together  all  of  the 
information  into  an  Excel 
worksheet,  from  which  I 
draw  a  progress  graph.  The 
problem  is  if  there's  no  data 
in  a  site's  file,  my  report 
returns  a  zero  that  the 
graph  plots.  At  present  I 
manually  add  formulas  to 
eliminate  these  plots  but 
I'm  looking  for  an  automat¬ 
ic  method,  which  doesn't 
involve  VBA. 

Andrew  King 


a 


With  Excel  97,  if  you 
click  the  chart  then 
choose  Tools,  Options,  Chart 
tab,  there  is  a  section  headed 


ten  |  |  Eft  | 

M  1 

1 1  ■  ■  ■  i  |  QuIMi  M 

■■cawi  &w. 

1 

1 

^3" 


P  nd  « 
lurip 

F 


T  Mm  rrfh  lm 


F  5^-yAmi 


◄  Fig  3  The  ‘Plot 

EMPTY  CELLS  AS’ 
OPTION  CAN  REMOVE 
POINTS  WITH  A  VALUE 
OF  ZERO  FROM  GRAPHS 


J 


J 


‘Plot  empty  cells  as’  [Fig  3], 
Here  you  can  have  the  zero 
plots  ignored,  or  drawn,  or 
interpolated  —  meaning  the 
gaps  in  lines  are  joined  up. 

QI  have  a  curious 

problem  with  Excel  97. 
At  the  bottom  right  hand 
side  of  the  screen  are  the 
letters  FIX  (on  the  right  of 
the  NUM  box)  and  when  I 
type  in  figures  in  a  cell,  I  get 
a  completely  different  figure 


from  what  I've  entered.  If  I 
type  in  6, 1  get  0.06.  How 
can  I  get  it  back  to  normal? 

Stephen  Moyle 


a 


You  need  to  go  to  Tools, 
Options,  Edit  and 
uncheck  the  Fixed  decimal  box. 
But  it’s  important  to  remem¬ 
ber  that  this  option  is  available 
when  you  have  a  lot  of  cash 
entries  to  make.  It  can  save 
you  having  to  keep  putting  the 
decimal  point  in. 


QI  wish  to  add  a 

number  of  months  to 
a  date.  For  example,  6  June 
99  +  12  months  would 
return  5  June  00;  and  1 
October  98  +  5  would 
return  28  February  99. 1 
must  have  missed  some¬ 
thing  along  the  usual 
routes  because  I  have 
been  forced  to  produce  a 
formula  using  conditional 
statements.  Can  you  point 
me  in  the  right  direction? 

Mark  Overend 


a 


If  you  start  with  6  June 
99  in  A1  ( which  you 
produce  using  the  custom  for¬ 
mat,  d  mmmm  yy)  and  enter 
=DATE(YEAR(A  1 ), MONTH 
(A  1  )+12,DAY(A  1)-1)  in  a  cell 
you  get  5  June  00.  Similarly,  if 
you  start  with  1  October  98  in 
cell  A2,  and  then  enter 
DATE(YEAR(A2), MONTH 
(A2)+5,DAY(A2)-1 )  you  can 
display  28  February  99. 


and  says,  ‘I  would  like  to  print  a  row  of 
cells  IF  a  particular  cell  in  that  row  has  a 
value  of  1  or  more.  Supposing  I  have  a 
shopping  list  of  500  items.  I  only  want 
to  print  a  list  of  items  I  wish  to  purchase 
(say  1 00  rows).  Years  ago,  I  could  have 
got  a  result  in  BASIC,  but  software  is 
now  too  friendly  to  be  truly  obliging.’ 

Jim  says,  ‘An  old  DOS  shareware 
spreadsheet  I  use  called  CALC  has  a 


NOPRINT  function.  A  row  will  not  print 
if  a  cell  in  it  meets  certain  conditions.  I 
can’t  see  how  to  do  the  same  in  EXCEL.  I 
can’t  believe  a  sophisticated  program 
can  be  outperformed  by  software  more 
than  1 2  years  old !  I  use  a  spreadsheet  for 
clients'  tax  calculations.  As  an  example, 
if  a  row  is  for  “Interest  on  Savings”  and 
they  do  not  have  any,  then  I  don’t  want 
to  take  up  space  printing  that  item.’ 


■  Gobbledygook 

Andy  Williams  says:  ‘I've  been  trying  to 
access  an  Excel  file  from  a  colleague  who 
has  recently  left  our  organisation.  I  have 
moved  the  file  and  renamed  it,  then  tried 
to  get  into  it  via  Access  and  Word,  and 
also  tried  to  link  to  it  from  another 
spreadsheet  but  all  to  no  avail.  I  have 
managed  to  open  it  in  Notepad  but  it  is 
just  gobbledygook.  Do  you  have  any 
ideas  on  how  I  can  get  to  the  data?’ 

This  inaccessibility  could  be  fora 
wide  variety  of  reasons,  but  it  may  well  be 
that  the  file  is  corrupted.  You  could  try 
Excel  recovery  software  such  as  Concept 
Data’s  Excel  Recovery  program  at 
www.conceptdata.com  or  a  program 
called  Excel  Recovery  at 
www.  Exce I  Recove ry.com. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Stephen  Wells  welcomes  your  comments 
on  the  Spreadsheets  column.  Contact  him 
via  the  PCW  editorial  office  or  email 

spreadsheets@pcw.  co.  uk 

♦  Please  do  not  send  attached  files  unless 
they  have  been  requested. 


EXCEL  SHORTCUTS 


•"When  you  enter  data 
and  press  the  Tab  key,  the 
focus  will  move  to  the 
next  cell  along  the  row. 
But  if  you  move  the 
vertical  scroll  bar  down, 
so  that  the  first  row  you 
wish  to  make  an  entry  in 
is  at  the  top  of  the 
Window,  and  click  on  the 
column  letter,  the  focus 
will  go  down  the  column. 


Correspondingly,  click 
the  row  number,  and  you 
can  move  along  the  row 
using  Enter. 

(•"When  you  drag  down 
the  Fill  Handle  of  a  cell  it 
copies  the  contents  (or  a 
default  series)  and  the 
format  to  the  cell  below, 
but  if  you  right-click  and 
then  drag  you  have  a 


number  of  options, 
including  developing  a 
series  of  your  choice,  or 
changing  formatting. 

(•"If  you  point  to  any  of 
the  edges  of  a  cell,  you 
can  drag  the  contents  to 
another  cell.  But  if  you 
right-click,  point  and 
drag,  you  are  offered  a 
wide  range  of  options. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


241 


I  :  (J  y  I  \  r1 


ua 


J  L 


databases 


Size  matters 


Mark  Whitehom  finds  that  keeping  PDAs  up  to  date  pits  memory  capacity  against  download  time. 


[FIG  1] 

1  +  Da  teDiffO'd '^CStart:, [End])- 
(DateDiff ("ww", [Start]- 

1,[End],7)+DateDiff("ww",[Start]-1,[End])) 


PDAs  have  tiny  brains,  at 

least  in  database  terms.  So 
a  significant  part  of 
designing  a  mobile 
database  system  is  deciding 
what  data  will  go  to  which  PDA.  You 
have  to  think  about:  who  needs  which 
data  set  and  which 
parts  of  the  data 
should  be  editable. 

This  is  important 
because  some  non- 
editable  data  may 
not  have  to  be 

downloaded  to  the  PDA  each  time  it  is 
synchronised. 

These  decisions  will  all  require  the 
Wisdom  ofSolomon  and  the  disce¬ 
rnment  of...  well...  the  most  discerning 
person  you  can  think  of,  and  you’ll  notice 
that  I’m  not  being  much  help.  The 
answer  is  that  I  can’t  be,  and  that  this  is 
an  area  where  common  sense  will 
triumph.  You  need  to  balance  the  desire 
to  shunt  lots  of  data  to  the  PDA  with 
considerations  of  connect  time  and 
speed.  You  need  to  talk  to  the  people 
who  will  be  using  the  PDAs  in  the  field 
and  find  out  what  they  really  do  with  the 
machines.  And  they  almost  certainly 

The  new  IBM  micro  disks 
are  set  to  revolutionise 
the  design  process 


data  can  be  equally  problematical 
because  ofthe  time  the  transmission  can 
take. 


■  Working  days 

Database  people  clearly  love  calculating 
the  number  ofworking  days  -  perhaps 


works.  I  was  going  to  provide  an 
explanation  this  month,  however,  Charli 
(who’s  in  fact  male  -  sorry  about  that!) 
wrote  in  himself  and  saved  me  the 
trouble.  His  detailed  explanation  will 
apear  on  a  future  cover  disc. 

Andy  Robinson  <andycrobinson@ 
hotmail.com>  sent  in  an  Access  specific 
answer  which  involves  no  coding  at  all  - 
you  could;  for  example,  embed  the 
formula  in  a  form,  as  in  Fig  1 . 

■  Record  Ordering 

On  a  different  topic,  David  Saville 


[FIG  2] 


be  able 
to  tell 


you 

because 
they 

won’t  have  used  them  in  anger  yet,  so 
they  won’t  have  enough  experience.  The 
good  news  is  that  this  is  a  major 
challenge  and  we  thrive  on  challenges. 
Incidentally,  I  stress  the  'design’  side  so 
much  because  actually  implementing  the 
process  of  sub-setting  the  data  is  trivial  - 
that’s  what  SQL  is  for. 

Another  aspect  worth  considering  is 
that  technologies  such  as  the  new  IBM 
micro  disks  are  set  to  revolutionise  this 
process  when  they  come  on-stream  in  the 
latter  part  ofthe  year  -  340Mb  is  an 
order  of  magnitude  improvement  for 
PDAs.  In  some  ways  this  helps  to  make 
the  design  process  easier:  as  you  don’t 
need  to  spend  so  much  time  agonising 
over  which  parts  ofthe  data  are  required. 
On  the  other  hand,  sending  too  much 


it’s  because  we  all  work  so 
hard;  we  need  to  know 
when  we  will  be  free.  There 
has  been  a  flood  of  mail 
about  this.  In  particular, 

Ken  Sheridan  put  a  great 
deal  of  effort  into  the 
topic;  amongst  other 
contributions  he 
translated  Charli’s  dBASE 
code  into  Access. 

The  bottom  line  is  that  many  people 
seem  to  use  a  simple  system  -  division  by 
seven  and  multiplication  by  five.  This  will 
often  give  the  correct  answer  or  at  least 
give  something  close.  But  for  those  who 
need/want/demand 
an  exact  answer  the 
problem  is  more 
complex.  To  begin 
with  you  need  to  take 
account  ofthe  start 
and  end  days.  Secondly  there  are  public 
holidays  such  as  bank  holidays.  The 
second  problem  is  only  solvable  using  a 
table  of  dates,  but  we  can  address  the 
first  more  easily. 

Charli’s  code  does  this  rather 
elegantly  and  I  suggested  that  as  an 
exercise  you  could  try  to  figure  out  how  it 


SELECT 

tblTestContacts. Contact, 
tblTestContacts.ContactDate, 
basLi neCounterC [Contact ] )  AS  LineNo 
FROM  tblTestContacts 

ORDER  BY  tblTestContacts.ContactDate; 


extended  the  Record  Ordering  problem 
mentioned  in  thejune  issue.  He  defines 
another  class  of  problem,  together  with  a 
solution:  'A  more  interesting  problem  is 
to  include  record  numbering  actually 
within  the  output  from  a  query,  which  is 
a  problem  I  had  to  solve  for  one  of  our 
customers  a  while  ago. 

'The  way  we  solved  it  was  to  create  an 
incremental  counter  function,  containing 
a  static  variable  to  prevent  the  value  of 
the  counter  from  being  lost  from  one 
invocation  to  the  next,  and  using  this  in  a 
query  [Fig  2],  where  the  work  is  actually 
done  by  "basLineCounte”.’ 

■  Stock  answer 

On  the  subject  of  stock  levels,  the 
following  erudite  contribution  from 
Jacques Thoorens  <Jacques.Thoorens 


[FIG  3] 


SELECT  Tota INoItemsSold . ItemNo, 

TotalNoItemsSold.Item, 

1 1 f ( I sNu 1 1 ( [Tot a l NoOrde red] ) ,0, ETot a  l  NoOrde red]  )  AS  TNO 
Ilf (IsNull([TotalNoSold]),0,[TotalNoSold])  AS  TNS, 
[TN0]-[TNS ]  AS  StockLeve  l 

FROM  Tota INoI temsSo  Id  INNER  JOIN  Tota INoI temsOrdered 
ON  TotalNoItemsSold. ItemNo  =  TotalNoItemsOrdered. ItemNo; 


242 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


[I 

D>! 

D 


■  Multiple  Combo  boxes 

Tony  Kelly  wanted  to  be  able  to  use  two  combo 
boxes  to  subset  data.  For  example,  suppose  that 
you  have  an  invoicing  system  set  up  and  you  need 
to  invoice  people  who  work  in  different  companies 
(screen  shotl ).  On  the  invoice  form  itself,  you  want 
to  be  able  to  choose  the  company  (screen  shot  2) 
and  then  choose  a  person.  However,  the  ‘person’ 
combo  box  should  only  show  the  names  ofthe 
people  who  work  for  the  company  you  have  just 
chosen  (screen  shots  3). 

Tony  supplied  an  MDB  file  to  dojustthis,  and 
this  will  feature  on  a  forthcoming  cover  disc.  Have  a  play 
and  you  should  be  able  to  see  how  it  works.  The  only  point 
that  may  not  be  obvious  is  the  On  Got  Focus  property  that 


i] 


VS 

r 


P  Tf  r»---  3 


1  — 


IK  |  ■  || 


*  K  |H|K  +  |  a  . 


ca 


Tdl  UrlM 
JIM 


•  |  H  |h-ff|  id  . 


LWaAMiVn 

Diu 

d  hk  'j 


r 


PS - 


-*tt±  n  i  m  ir 


6  K  |M|h*|rf  t 


is  set  for  the  second  combo  box. 

Please  note  this  database  is  simply  to  demonstrate 
these  multiple  combo  boxes.  It  is  not  supposed  to  be  the 
epitome  of  good  design  in  other  ways! 


[FIG  4] 


CREATE  VIEW  StockLevel 
AS 

SELECT  Tota INoItemsSold . ItemNo, 

TotalNoItemsSold.Item, 

TNO  =  CASE 

WHEN  TotalNoOrdered  IS  NULL  THEN  0 

ELSE  Tota  LNoOrdered 

END, 

TNS  =  CASE 

WHEN  TotalNoSold  IS  NULL  THEN  0 

ELSE  TotalNoSold 

END, 

ISNULL(TotalNoOrdered,0)  -  I SNULL ( To t a l NoSo l d, 0 )  AS  StockLevel 
FROM  Tota INoItemsSold, Tota INoItemsOrdered 

WHERE  Tota INoItemsSo Id . ItemNo  =  To t a l No  1 1 emsO rde r ed . 1 1 emNo 


@ping.be>  is  worth  reading,  not  only  for 
information  about  stock  levels,  but  also 
for  information  on  differences  between 
Access  and  SQL  server. 

‘I  read  your  column  every  month  in 
Personal  Computer  World  Hands  On  and  I 
was  very  interested  by  your  April  paper 
about  stock  level. 

Thinking  about  it,  I  have  another 
solution  to  propose. 

The  problem  is  there  is  no  way  to 
make  a  calculation  with  Null.  Orto  say  it 


another  way,  each  expression  containing 
a  Null  value  is  evaluated  as  Null. 
Fortunately,  Access  provides  a  unique 
function  whose  purpose  is  to  avoid  this 
“contamination”  :  lsNull(  ). 

Here  is  a  proposal  for  replacing  your 
StockLevel  query  :  instead  of  using 
TotalNoOrdered  and  TotalNoSold, 
which  can  contain  Nulls,  I  useTNO  and 
TNS,  two  expressions  built  with  llf( )  and 
lsNull( )  functions  [Fig  3]. 

Knowing  that  your  column  is  not 


about  Access  but  databases,  I 
wondered  if  this  solution  could  be 
used  on  any  RDBMS.  I  tried  to 
apply  it  to  SQL  Server  6.5. 

However,  Isnu ll()  behaves 
differently  in  SQLServer,  so  you  will 
have  to  find  another  solution. 

The  method  I  suggest  uses  two 
different  ways  to  avoid  Null.  The 
first  uses  the  versatile  CASE  WH  EN 
TH  EN  ELSE  construct  and  the 
second  one  the  more  compact 
function  ISNULL().To  illustrate 
both  ofthem,  I  have  mixed  them 
together  [Fig  4],  where 
TotalNoltemsSold  and 
TotalNoltemsOrdered  are  views 
made  in  the  same  fashion  as  your 
queries. 

■  Future  disc 

The  full  text  ofthe  examples  from  this 
month’s  column  will  be  available  on  a 
CD-ROM  soon. 

PCW  CONTACTS _ 

Mark  Whitehorn  welcomes  your  feedback 
on  the  Databases  column.  Contact  him 
via  the  PCW  editorial  office ,  or  email 

database@pcw.  co.  uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


243 


i  i  nc 


*  ;i  " 


h  a  rd  wa  re 


DVD  on  your  PC 

Gordon  Laing  looks  at  ways  of  giving  your  PC  a  front  row  seat  in  your  home  cinema 


it.  The 

video  too  needs  to  be  decompressed  and 
converted  into  an  analog  signal  for  us  to 
see  it. 

■Three  steps  to  heaven 

There  are  three  ways  to  decode  DVD’s 


DVD  bundles  a 
6X  DVD-ROM  drive  and  card  for  £1 38.  A 
bundle  is  the  best  choice  forthose 
wanting  to  watch  movies  on  their  PC  but 
currently  without  any  DVD  equipment  of 
any  description. 

The  suppliers  of  DVD  decoder  cards 


surprisingly  play  their  benefits  down, 
describing  them  as  ideal  for  anyone 
wanting  to  watch  movies  on  slower  PCs 
which  can’t  take  the  strain  of  software 
decoding;  typically  they’ll  work  on  a 
PI  33  upwards.  Many  cards  are  also  sold 
to  owners  of  fast  PCs  which  came 
supplied  with  a  DVD-ROM  drive,  but 
found  the  bundled  software  decoding 
disappointing. 

These  cards  also  tend  to  feature  TV 
outputs,  which  deliver  the  pure 
decoded  PAL  or  NTSC  video  signals  in  a 
composite  or, 
preferably,  S-Video 
format.  These 
outputs  usually 
don’t  render  your 
Windows  desktop, 
making  them  no 
good  for  playing 
games  or  browsing 
the  web  on  your 
telly.  However,  by 
delivering  plain 
video  only,  the 


◄With  setups  like  the 
DigiTheatre  from 
VideoLogic  you’ll  never  have 

TO  ENDURE  SCREAMING  KIDS  AT 
THE  CINEMA  AGAIN 


quality  is  a  lot  higherthan  simply 
displaying  video  in  a  desktop  window, 
even  when  using  the  full  PC  screen. 


Decoder  cards  also  win  on  the  audio 
front.  Most  feature  an  SPDIF 
(Sony/Philips  Digital  InterFace)  socket 
that  delivers  the  raw  digital  audio  signal 
to  an  external  surround  sound  processor. 
This  signal  could  contain  linear  stereo 
PCM  (such  as  CD  audio),  or  compressed 
multi-channel  digital  surround  sound. 
The  mandatory  standard  for  audio  on 
DVD  movies  is  Dolby  Digital,  encoded  in 
two  or  six  separate  channels,  and 
compressed  using  the  AC3  algorithm. 

Two-channel  audio  can  contain 
hidden  matrixed  surround  information. 
It’ll  sound  fine  played  back  through  two 
speakers,  but  a  Dolby  ProLogic 
processor  will  extract  two  additional 
signals  for  a  centre  speaker  and  pair  of 


Today’s  half-decent  PCs 
come  fitted  with  DVD- 
ROM  drives,  but  are  they 
necessary,  and  should 
existing  CD-ROM  owners 
upgrade?  In  the  near  future  we’ll  have 
properly  authored  PC  DVD  titles,  but  in 
the  meantime,  these  drives  are  being 
pitched  as  high-quality  movie  machines. 
In  this  Hands  On  Hardware  special,  we’ve 
taken  a  close  look  at  the  various  issues 
involved  in  watching  DVDs  on  your  PC, 
and  discovered  you  may  want  to  think 
carefully  before  settling  down  with  a  box 
of  popcorn. 


video  and  audio  streams  on  a  PC:  first  by 
using  dedicated  hardware  muscle, 
second  by  using  cunning  software 
running  on  a  sufficiently  quick  CPU,  and 
third  by  sharing  video  and  audio 


■Two  sides  to  a  story 

DVD-ROM  drives  look 
exactly  like  CD-ROM 
drives,  and  use  the 
sameATAPI  EIDEor 
SCSI  interfaces.  Once 
connected,  a  DVD- 
ROM  drive  behaves  in 
the  same  way  as  a  CD- 
ROM  drive:  the  OS 
assigns  it  a  drive  letter, 
and  it’ll  happily  read 
both  DVDs  and  CDs. 

The  actual  drive  is 
only  one  halfofthe 
story.  By  itself,  it  may 
be  able  to  access  the 
data  on  the  discs,  but  not  necessarily 
know  what  to  do  with  it.  The  video  on 
DVD  movies  is  digitised  and  heavily 
compressed  using  the  MPEG-2  format, 
while  the  audio  is  encoded  using  a  variety 
of  systems,  commonly  Dolby  Digital  and 
MPEG,  and  more  rarely  DTS  and  Linear 
PCM.  Each  one  ofthese  audio  formats  is 
digitally  delivered  by  DVD  and  simply 
needs  to 
be 

converted 
into 

analog  for 
us  to  hear 


decoding  between  both  dedicated 
hardware  and  cunning  software.  We’ll  be 
looking  at  how  each  ofthese  works  with 
their  pros  and  cons. 

Dedicated  hardware  solution 

Using  dedicated  hardware  to  process 
and  decode  DVD  movies  was  the  first, 
and  remains  the  most  superior  solution 
for  PCs. 
VideoLogic’s 
DVD  player 
card  costs  £65, 
and  Creative 
Labs’  Encore 


Anyone  who  wants  flawless 
DVD  playback  needs  a 
hardware  decoder  card 


246 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


rear  surround  speakers.  Hence  basic 
analog  surround  sound. 

Six-channel  surround  sound  is 
commonly  referred  to  as  5.1  audio.  This 
refers  to  five  separate  full  range  channels 
for  the  three  front  and  two  rear  speakers, 
along  with  a  dedicated  subwoofer  deep 
bass  channel,  known  as  point-one.  Most 
DVD  titles  take  the  original 
uncompressed  5.1  soundtrack,  digitise 
(if  necessary),  and  then 
compress  it.  Dolby  Digital 
squeezes  5.1  channels  into  a 
bitstream  of  between  384  and 
448  kb/sec,  while  higher  quality 
systems  such  as  DTS  don’t 
compress  as  heavily,  but  require 
something  around  1.4Mb/sec 
for  5.1  audio. 

A  dedicated  PC  DVD  decoder  card 
will  take  the  Dolby  Digital  signal,  and 
mix  it  down  into  two-channel  stereo 
(whether  originally  2.0  or  5.1  channels), 
then  deliverthis  as  an  analog  stereo 
output;  normally  this  will  be  fed  to  your 
speakers  via  your  soundcard.  The  SPDIF 
output,  however,  provides  external 
access  to  the  original  digital  audio 
signal,  which  then  can  be  fed  to  a 
separate  Dolby  Digital  decoder. 
VideoLogic’s  DigiTheatre  (£250)  and 
Creative  Labs  Desktop  Theatre  5.1 
(£139)  are  5.1  channel  speaker  systems, 
with  amps  and  Dolby  Digital  decoders 
for  a  simple  home-cinema  audio  setup. 
No  PC  solutions  currently  handle  DTS 
soundtracks,  unfortunately,  but  then  the 
existing  titles  are  rare  and  sold  in  the 
States  only. 

So  far,  so  good,  but  in  order  to 
display  DVD  video  on  your  PC  monitor, 
decoder  cards  often  employ  VGA  pass- 


E2  DVD  Player 


►Zoran’s  software 

DVD  PLAYER,  RE-BADGED 
BY  ATI  AND  DISPLAYING 
16:9  ASPECT  PICTURE. 
Note  that  video 

OVERLAY  PREVENTS 
SCREEN  GRABS  OF  A  MOVIE 


through  cables  in  the  same  way  as 
Voodoo2  3D  accelerator  cards. 
Whatever  the  manufacturers  say,  pass¬ 
throughs  degrade  the  quality  ofyour 
standard  windows  desktop  image, 
particularly  at  high  resolutions.  Ifyour 
monitor  has  two  inputs,  you  could 
connect  the  decoder  to  one  and  the 
video  card  to  the  other,  sacrificing  video 
overlay  but  retaining  a  good  looking 
desktop.  Some  decoder  cards  won’t 
operate  properly,  or  calibrate  themselves 
when  disconnected  from  the  main  video 
card,  but  it’s  worth  experimenting. 

Software  solution 

Technology  enthusiasts  love  software 
solutions.  Why  bother  with  expensive, 
power-consuming  hardware  when  the 
same  effect  can  be  emulated  using 
software  running  on  a  sufficiently-fast 
main  CPU? 


SCALING  TO  FIT  YOUR  SCREEN 


When  watching  a  movie 
on  your  monitor,  you 
want  it  displayed  full 
screen.  The  problem  is 
that  DVD  video  only 
measures  640x480  pixels 
and  most  PC  displays 
run  at  higher 
resolutions. 

Games  get  around  this 
by  switching  the  desktop 
resolution  on  the  fly,  but 


all  PC  DVD  players  we’ve 
seen  actually  put  in  the 
effort  of  scaling  and 
interpolating  the  image 
to  fit  the  screen.  This 
process  again  can  prove 
quite  intensive  on  your 
processor,  so  users  of 
software-based  decoders 
may  want  to  manually 
switch  their  desktop 
resolution  to  640x480  to 


give  it  the  easiest  job. 
Then  again  DVD  video 
interpolated  to 
1024x768  or  higher  still 
can  look  pretty  smooth. 
In  effect  your  PC  is 
acting  as  a  budget  line 
doubler  and  de¬ 
interlacer,  both  pieces  of 
equipment  that  cost  a 
fortune  for  domestic 
home  theatres. 


First  of  all,  'sufficiently-fast  CPU’ 
means  a  Pentium  II  running  at  350M Hz 
at  least.  In  fact  in  tests  we  experienced 
dropped  frames  and  out-of-sync  audio 
on  processors  up  to  Pill  550s.  Such 
glitches  admittedly  rarely  occur,  but  the 
human  eye  and  brain  spot  them 
immediately,  ruining  the  effect  of  the 
film  for  discerning  viewers.  Try  running 
Windows  system  monitor  to  see  the 
effect  of  software  decoding.  Even  our  Pill 
550  totally  maxed  out  at  1 00  per  cent, 
leaving  nothing  behind.  You’ll  also  curse 
every  time  your  hard  disk  performs 
routine  maintenance,  jerking  the 
playback.  Do  make  sure  you’ve  quit  any 
background  processes  such  as  virus 
checking,  though. 

Speed  aside,  there  are  other  issues. 
Eliminate  a  decoder  card  and  you,  er, 
eliminate  the  plugs  it  supplied.  There 
may  be  video  on  your  PC  monitor,  but 
without  a  suitable  socket,  how  are  you 
going  to  get  it  to  yourTV?  We  tried  the 
TV-out  sockets  on  modern  video  cards, 
but  by  delivering  the  entire  Windows 
desktop,  even  full-screen  DVD  playback 
looked  washed  out  and  poor  compared 
to  the  dedicated  video  outputs  of 
decoder  cards. 

Audio-wise  it’s  also  all  going  through 
your  soundcard.  Sadly,  none  ofthe 
software  decoders  we  tried  would 
re-route  the  raw  Dolby  Digital  signal  to 
soundcards  with  built-in  SPDIF  outputs. 
The  software  took  the  Dolby  signal  and 
downmixed  it  to  two-channel  analog 
stereo,  whether  you  liked  it  or  not.  The 
best  you  can  do  with  this  is  run  it 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


HZ 


/ 


'  r  ui. 


d 


n 


hardware 


REGIONAL  CODING 


In  an  attempt  to  control 
worldwide  releases, 
Hollywood  divided  the  globe 
into  six  regions  for  DVD 
movies.  Region  1  is  North 
America,  Region  2  is  Europe 
and  Japan,  and  so  on.  The 
theory  is  that  players  from 
one  region  will  only  playback 
titles  from  its  home  region, 
and  reject  foreign  material. 
However,  the  slow  take-up  of 
DVD  outside  the  US  has 
driven  tweakers  to  adjust 
players  to  allow  them  to 
access  titles  from  all  over  the 
world.  This  involves 
soldering  a  new  chip  into  a 
domestic  player;  however, 
there  are  regional  hacks  for 
PC  playback. 

All  the  DVD  transport 
utilities  weVe  installed  ask 


upon  installation  which 
region  you  are  in;  in  effect 
they’re  asking  which  region 
you’d  like  to  be  in,  and  will 
happily  accept  the  Region  1 
option,  allowing  playback  of 
imported  North  American 
titles.  However,  the  utilities 
usually  only  let  you  change 
the  region  when  reinstalling 
the  software,  and  most 
restrict  the  number  of 
changes  to  five. 

We  found  that  setting  up 
two  otherwise  identical 
Windows  Hardware  profiles 
from  the  System  properties 
Control  Panel  could  solve 
the  problem.  Simply  install 
the  utility  as,  say,  Region  1 
for  the  first  profile,  then 
restart  Windows,  choose  the 
other  profile,  and  install 


Select  DVD  Region 


El 


T o  view  DVD's  from  a  particular  region,  make  a  selection  in 
the  list  below.  T  o  change  the  region  you  may  run  setup  again. 
The  region  can  be  changed  a  maximum  of  5  times. 


Region  2:  Europe,  Near  East,  South  Africa,  Japan 
Region  3:  South  East  Asia 
Region  4:  Australia,  Middle  and  South  America 
Region  5:  Africa,  Asia,  Eastern  Europe 
Region  S:  Peoples  Republic  of  China 


Number  of  changes  made:  0 
Number  of  changes  remaining:  5 


A  Most  DVD  software 

INSTALLATIONS  ASK  WHICH 
REGION  YOU’D  LIKE  TO  BE  IN, 
BUT  ONLY  LET  YOU  CHANGE  IT 

five  times.  Using  Windows 

HARDWARE  PROFILES  YOU  CAN 
INSTALL  MULTIPLE  REGIONS 

Region  2  drivers.  In  almost 
all  cases  you’ll  now  be  able  to 
playback  titles  from 
wherever  you  want  by 


<Back 

Next> 

Cancel 

changing  Windows  profiles. 
Bear  in  mind  that  there’s 
talk  of  fitting  hardware 
restrictions  to  DVD-ROM 
drives,  but  in  our  experience, 
there’s  no  player  -  domestic, 
software  or  on  a  card  -  that 
can’t  be  regionally  modified. 


through  a  Dolby  ProLogic  surround 
processor.  In  this  instance  you  should 
choose  two-channel  Dolby  stereo  over 
Dolby  Digital  5.1  when  playing  back 
DVDs,  as  it  required  slightly  less 
processing  muscle  for  the  final  downmix. 
With  any  luck,  future  soundcard  drivers 
and  software  players  will  be  able  to  use 
existing  SPDIF  outputs  for  all  types  of 
audio  streams. 


to  around  five  to  ten  percent  when  using 
an  ATi  Rage  Fury  1 28  card  for  DVD 
playback.  Better  still  was  that  for  display 
on  your  monitor,  there  were  no  nasty 
pass-through  cables.  However  despite 
allowing  you  to  playgames  on  yourTV, 
the  PAL/NTSC  video  outputs  remained 
inferior  to  those  from  dedicated  cards, 
and  once  again  the  audio  was  software- 
downmixed  analog  stereo. 


Mix  ’n  match 

You  can’t  help  noticing  that  almost  every 
new  3D  graphics 
card  boasts  a 

DVD  feature 
known  as 
motion 

compensation. 

This  actually 
takes  care  of 
decoding  and 
processing  the 
complex  video 
signal,  leaving 
the  relatively 
simple  audio 
decoding  to  J 

your  main  CPU. 

In  our  tests  the 
main  processor  hit 
was  typically  reduced 


A  ATI’s 
Rage  Fury  128 

DID  WELL,  BUT 

dedication’s 

WHAT  YOU  NEED 


■  Conclusions 

These  three  PC  decoding  solutions  are 
suited  to  different  environments.  Pure 
software  decoding  is  a  very  cheap  way  of 
providing  movie  playback  on  fast  new 
PCs.  While  not  perfect  in  many  respects, 
it  allows  users  to 
cheaply  evaluate  the 
format  fora  more 
serious  purchase  in  the 
future.  Also  as  CPUs  get 
faster  and  hardware 
drivers  more  cunning, 
most  ofthe  issues  will 
be  resolved. 

Motion  compensation  is  great  for 
delivering  basic  playback  on  mid-range 
systems  upwards,  and  anyone 
considering  a  new  graphics  card  should 
definitely  make  sure  it  has  this  handy 
facility.  Like  software  decoding,  however, 


it’s  only  currently  suitable  for  toying  with 
movie  playback  on  your  PC  monitor. 

Anyone  who  wants  flawless  DVD 

playback  using  a  PC  still  needs  a 
hardware  decoder  card.  They  supply  the 
best  signal  to  a  TV  and  most  offer  SPDIF 
output,  providing  access  to  the  Dolby 
Digital  5.1  soundtrack.  Do  bear  in  mind 
the  pass-through  cables,  however. 

So  saying,  if  you  want  to  connect  it  to 
yourTV,  you’ll  need  your  PC  in  the  same 
room,  or  a  very  long  cable.  If  it’s  in  your 
lounge  you’ll  have  to  put  up  with  its 
noise  let  alone  the  looks,  while  if  it’s  in 
another  room,  then  how  are  you  going 
to  control  it?  Additionally,  who  wants  to 
wait  for  a  PC  to  start  up  to  watch  a  film 
in  the  first  place?  It  might  be  possible  to 
playback  DVD  movies  on  your  PC,  but  if 
you’re  really  serious  about  home  cinema, 
buy  a  domestic  player  -  a  regionally 
modified  Pioneer  71 7  or  Sony  7700  are 
our  recommendations. 


PCW  CONTACTS 

Gordon  Laingwelcomes your  comments  on 
the  Hardware  column.  Contact  him  via 
the  PCW  editorial  office ,  or  email 

hardware@pcw.  co.  uk 


2481 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


sound 


Big  audio  dynamite 


Stephen  Helstrip  gives  you  the 
low-down  on  MP3  -  the  CD- 
quality  audio  format  that  has 
the  music  industry  in  a  flap 


4  *  fliico  DJ I  Save  '  Cfnar  | 

miu3l 

Ready. 

i  liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimi 

•.'«  Lilt  iLLaJ.w. 

HATCH 

Jukebox 

A  column  devoted  to  MP3s 
is  long  overdue,  so  this 
month  we’ll  be  looking  at 
the  technology  behind 
them  and  the  software  you 
need  to  create  and  play  them  on  your 
PC.  Although  there  has  been  some 
controversy  surrounding  the  format  - 
particularly  in  the  music  industry  where 
copyright  issues  are  a  major 
concern  -  we  won’t  be  getting 
into  any  of  that. 

So  what  are  MP3s?  MP3  is 

an  abbreviation  for  MPEG-1 
Layer  3  and  is  a  standard  for 
compressing  and  storing  audio 
at  ratios  as  high  as  96:1 .  MPEG  was 
developed  as  a  compression  tool  for 


►  Fig  1 

MusicMatch 
Juke  Box  has 

EVERYTHING 
YOU  NEED  TO 
ENCODE  AND 
PLAY  MP3S 


Album 

title 

Artist 

flltlst 


Recording  Status 
7  f  39%  (lleni  CD  Duality  I* 


' ,  _ I 


lII  »  Hon* 


1  r  Track  01 

1  A5 - 

2  r  Track  02 

2  1:02" 

3  r  Track  03 

1 1 :25 

4  r  Track  04  1:40 

5  t“  Track  05 

gl:12. 

6  r  Track  06 

1:16 

7  Track  07 

39  % 

0:50  ^ 

Fig  2:  Table  of  MP3  compression  ratios 


Reduction  Ratio 

96:1 

48:1 

24:1 

26-24:1 

16:1 

14-12:1 

Sound  Quality 

Telephone 

Better  than  Short-wave  radio 

Better  than  AM  radio 

FM  Radio 

Near  CD 

CD 

Bandwidth 

2.5KHz 

4.5KHz 

7. 5  KHz 

11  KHz 

15  KHz 

>1 5KHz 

Mono  /  Stereo 

Mono 

Mono 

Mono 

Stereo 

Stereo 

Stereo 

Bitrate 

8  Kb/sec 

1 6  Kb/s  ec 

32  Kb/s  ec 

56-64Kb/sec 

96  Kb/s  ec 

1 1 2-1 28Kb/sec 

Beatnik  Psychedelic  Trance  and  Goa 


If  there’s  one  genre  of 
dance  music  that  has 
taken  off  in  a  big  way  this 
year  then  it  has  to  be  trance. 
Judge  Jules,  Pete  Tong,  Dave 
Pierce  -  they’re  all  at  it.  But 
where  do  you  get  all  those 
sounds  that  make  trance 
what  it  is?  Unless  you’re 
prepared  to  spend  upwards 
of  ten  grand  for  a  truckload 
of  synthesisers  and  effects 
processors,  sampling  CDs 
are  your  best  bet. 

Psychedelic  Trance  and  Goa 
is  the  first  in  a  series  of 
modular  discs  from  Beatnik. 
Its  modular  aspect  means 


that  all  loops  (drum, 
percussion,  bass  and  synth 
lines)  come  with  the  original 
MIDI  files  and  their 
constituent  parts.  So  not 
only  can  you  see  how  the 
loops  are  put  together 
(which  is  one  of  the  best 
ways  to  learn  how  to  do  it 
yourself),  you  can  swap  one 
sound  for  another  within  a 
loop,  change  its  tempo  or 
just  use  the  samples  to  create 
something  new. 

Each  title  comes  with  two 
discs:  an  audio  version,  and  a 
CD-ROM  containing  the 
sounds  in  .wav  format  and 


the  said  MIDI 
files.  The  first  six 
tracks  provide 
samples  in  a 
construction  kit 
format  to  enable 
you  to  get  a 
track  up  and 
running.  The 
production  is 
first  class.  The 
remainder  of  the 
disc  is  crammed  with  loops, 
single-shot  drum  sounds, 
multi-sampled  basses, 
synths,  pads  and  analog 
effects.  Again,  the  production 
is  excellent  and  there’s  plenty 


of  variation  to  inspire.  At  a 
shade  under  £40  they’re 
excellent  value  as  well. 

Each  disk  costs  £39.95  (£34 
ex  VAT)  from  SampleZone 
0800  7312939 


zm 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Questions 


&  answers 


QI  want  to  record  some 
tracks  to  CD-R  but  I’m 
having  a  bit  of  trouble.  IVe 
connected  my  MiniDisc  to 
my  PC  via  the  line  input  on 
the  sound  card  and  can  hear 
music  in  stereo  through  the 
speakers. 

However,  I  don't  seem  to 
be  able  to  record  it  to  the 
hard  drive.  IVe  tried  running 
Sound  Recorder  while  the 
music  is  coming  through, 
but  it  just  doesn't  pick  it  up. 
Can  you  tell  me  what  I  am 
doing  wrong? 

Paul  Ealey 


a 


From  what  you’ve 
described  it  sounds  as 


though  Windows  is  setup  to 
record  from  a  device  other  than 
your  sound  card.  Have  you  got 
a  voice  modem  installed?  To 
sort  this  out  you  need  to  run  the 
Multimedia  applet  from  the 
Control  Panel  and  select  your 
sound  card  as  the  preferred 
recording  device.  That  should 
do  the  trick. 

QI  have  a  case  of  Atari- 
formatted  discs  filled 
with  Cubase  song  files  and 
would  like  to  use  them  on 
my  PC.  When  I  try  to  load  a 
file,  Windows  reports  that 
the  disc  in  drive  A  is  not 
formatted.  I've  heard  it  is 


possible  to  load  the  discs,  do 
you  know  how? 

Neil  Chipchase 


a 


There  is  a  way  round  this 
but  you  will  need  to  dig 
out  your  old  Atari.  As  you  point 
out,  PCs  wont  accept  Atari 
discs.  However,  an  Atari  will 
read  a  PC-formatted  disc 
providing  it’s  one  of  those 
double  density  ones  (720Kb). 
All  you  need  to  do  is  save  your 
songs  on  to  one  of  these  and 
you’re  flying. 

Ql'm  quite  keen  to  use 
my  PC  for  making 
music  but  being  a  complete 
novice  I'm  not  sure  where  to 
start.  I  already  have  a  MIDI 


keyboard  (a  Roland  D-50) 
and  fancy  a  go  at  sequencing 
and  maybe  trying  out  some 
of  those  plug-ins  you're 
always  talking  about.  Can 
you  recommend  a  good 
book  to  get  me  started? 

Simon  West 


a 


The  best  book  I’ve  seen 
is  PC  Music  the  Easy 
Guide.  It’s  perfect  for  someone 
like  yourself  and  covers 
everything  you’ re  likely  to  want 
to  know.  As  well  as  chapters 
dedicated  to  sequencing  and 
direct  to  disc  recording,  there’s 
info  on  sound  cards,  software 
synthesis,  wave  editing  and 
those  plug-ins.  It  costs  £9. 95 
from  PC  Publishing. 


MMWave  for  x86  (RG) 


-  |  Musick/tatch 

Pl  -f  s  |  Music 

fi-  Pl  artist 
:~yj 

[-  •  '  |  Musiclvtatch  Jukebox  A 
Cj  Help 
F+l-  Library 
0-CH  Playlist 
|  '|  Plugins 


Track  05  .MP3 
Track  06  .MP3 
Track  07  .MP3 


|B^|| 


◄  Fig  3  Need  to 
CONVERT  AN  MP3 
BACK  INTO  A  WAVE 

file?  MMWave 

OUGHT  TO  DO  THE 
TRICK 


Engine:  3.0.7  3  file[s] 


C:\PFiOGRAM  FILES\MMWAVE  R6\ 


video  and  audio.  Recently,  though,  it 
has  become  associated  mainly  with  the 
latter  and  has  been  accepted  as  the  de- 
facto  audio  format  for  internet  users. 

MP3  has  benefits  for  the  PC 
musician  as  well,  and  has  become  the 
standard  for  a  good  reason  -  it  requires 
less  space  than  other  compression 
techniques  and  sounds  much  better.  For 
example,  you  can  fit  up  to  a  minute  of 
CD-quality  (44.1  kHz,  1 6-bit  stereo) 
audio  in  just  1  Mb.  By  comparison,  you 
would  need  around  1 0Mb  for  the 
equivalent  .wav  file. 

How  does  it  all  work,  then?  When  we 
listen  to  music  there  are  many  elements 
of  sound  which  our  ears  don’t  detect, 
for  example,  when  one  sound  is  masked 
by  another.  Using  a  mathematical 


model  ofthe  human  ear,  MP3  encoders 
(aka  rippers)  are  able  to  sift  out  these 
redundant  frequencies.  So,  we  end  up 
with  much  smaller  file  sizes,  yet  the 
perceived  output  remains  more  or  less 
the  same  as  the  original  recording.  An 
MP3  player  (or  decoder)  is  much  less 
complex  as  it  isn’t  required  to  apply  a 
psycho-acoustic  modal  -  it  just  plays 
back  what's  there. 

To  create  your  own  MP3s  you  will 
need  an  encoder.  There  are  a  few  good 
ones  available  on  the  internet  for  free, 
although  some  do  require  a  registration 
fee.  For  playback  you’ll  need  a  decoder. 
One  ofthe  most  popular  ones  is  Win 
Amp  because  it  can  handle  RealAudio, 
mod  and  MIDI  files  together.  Both 
programs  can  be  downloaded  from 
www.maz-sound.com. 


Perhaps  the  most  useful  MP3  utility 
I've  come  across  to  date  is  MusicMatch 
Juke  Box  [Fig  1  ].  As  well  as  encoding  and 
decoding,  it  is  able  to  rip  audio  tracks 
straight  from  a  CD  and  compile  play 
lists.  It  can  also  encode  from  an  audio 
source  connected  to  your  sound  card’s 
line  input. 

A  dedicated  webpage  provides 
graphics,  lyrics  and  track  contents  for  a 
growing  number  of  albums,  but  perhaps 
best  of  all,  it's  easy  to  use,  quick,  free 
and  fully  functional.  The  only  limitation 
is  that  you  cannot  encode  in  full  CD 
quality,  only  near  CD  quality. 

Registering  will  unlock  this  feature, 
though.  To  get  yourself  a  copy,  point 
your  browser  to  www.musicmatch.com 

At  some  point  you  may  find  you 
need  to  convert  an  MP3  back  into  a 
wave  file.  One  rather  neat  utility  for 
doing  this  is  MMWave  [Fig  3].  It's 
available  from  www.xs4all.dk  and  is 
completely  free. 

MP3s  can  be  encoded  with  varying 
degrees  of  sound  quality.  Fig  2  shows  a 
table  of  compression  ratios  which 
should  give  you  some  idea  ofthe  bit- 
rates  that  are  required  for  the  six  most 
common  formats. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Steven  Helstrip  welcomes  your  feedback  on 
the  Sound  column.  Contact  him  via  the  PCW 
editorial  office  or  email  sound@pcw.  co.  uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


251 


L? 


r  i~i.  r 


r  >  r  l 

-  -  < 

ID  g r a | 

p- 

hies 

Show  business 


Benjamin  Woolley  on  how  cinematography  is  pushing  3D  animation  into  the  realms  of  Hollywood. 


Creating  3D 

animations  is  often 
compared  to 
making  movies  and 
this  is  a  fair,  as  well 
as  gratifyingly  glamorous, 
analogy.  It  also  explains  why  3D 
graphics  production  is  such  hard 
work,  as  the  artist  effectively  has 
to  act  as  combined  director, 
scriptwriter,  set  designer,  set 
builder,  props  buyer  and  casting 
director.  And  there  is  another 
role,  one  universally  recognised  in 
Hollywood  as  key  to  the  success 
of  a  production,  but  curiously 
neglected  in  the  world  of  3D: 
cinematography. 

Cinematography  is  hugely 
important  in  3D  graphics  because 
one  of  the  most  powerful  tools  that  you 
have  for  viewing  and  rendering  the  scene 
you  have  created  is  a  camera. 

Many  3D  artists  build  and  render  their 
scenes  using 'perspective’  or  even  just 
'orthogonal’  viewports.  Orthogonal 
views  are  the  computer  equivalent  of  the 
'plan  and  elevation’  drawings  produced 
by  an  architect.  They  are  abstractions, 
and  it  is  not  possible  to  really  look  at  an 
object  'orthogonally’.  Perspective  views, 
on  the  other  hand,  simulate  what  the  eye 
would  see  if  the  objects  were  real  [Fig  1  ]. 

The  reason  why  orthogonal  viewports 
are  useful  is  that  they  reveal  an  object’s 
true  geometry,  so  they  are  ideal  for 
modelling.  Fig  2  shows  the  same  model 
shown  through  different  viewports.  The 
'real’  shape  is  in  Fig  2a,  in  which  the 
object  can  be  seen  from  the  top  in  an 
orthogonal  viewport.  Fig  2b  shows  the 
same  object  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees  to 
the  horizontal,  in  a  perspective  viewport. 

Fig  2c,  the  most  distorted  of  all,  isn’t 
a  perspective  view,  but  one  produced  by 
using  a  virtual  camera  -  the  distortion 
has  been  created  by  exploiting  the 
camera’s  capabilities. 

In  the  world  of  3D  graphics,  cameras 
are  odd  entities.  They  are  objects  that  you 
place  within  a  scene  and  can  move 
around  like  any  other,  but  with  a  number 


◄  Fig  1  Two  views 

OF  THE  SAME  OBJECT 
SEEN  FROM  THE 
SAME  POSITION.  THE 
TOP  SHOWS  THE 
ORTHOGONAL  VIEW, 
WHILE  THE  BOTTOM 
SHOWS  THE 
PERSPECTIVE  VIEW 


the  scene  from 
that  camera’s 
point  ofview. 

In  some  3D 
packages,  you 
can  move  the 


of  distinctive  qualities.  Like  real  cameras, 
they  have  lenses,  and  they  can  zoom.  But 
they  do  not  have  tripods  or  viewfinders. 
Instead  you  can  put  them  just  about 
anywhere  you  want,  and  view  what  they 
'see’  through  a  viewport.  Their  position 
in  the  scene  is  represented  by  an  icon  or 
gizmo.  You  can  have  as  many  as  you 
want,  and  none  ofthem  will  be  visible  in 
the  final  render.  The  camera  gizmo 
usually  has  another  object  attached  to  it, 
a  'target’.  By  moving  this  around,  you 
can  alter  the  camera’s  orientation.  Ifyou 
place  a  target  inside  another  object,  that 
object  will  appearto  be  in  the  middle  of 

YFig  2  Three  views  of  the  same  object. 

The  first  is  orthogonal,  revealing  its 

TRUE  SHAPE  [2a];  THE  SECOND  IS  THROUGH 

A  PERSPECTIVE  VIEWPORT[2b],  THE  THIRD 

IS  THROUGH  A  CAMERA  [2c] 


camera  around  from  within  the  camera 
viewport.  For  example,  you  can  'dolly’ 
(move  away  from  or  towards  the 
camera’s  target),  track  from  side  to  side, 
pan  (look  from  left  to  right  or  vice  versa 
without  moving  the  camera  itself,  like 
swivelling  the  camera  on  a  tripod)  and 
roll.  This  is  extremely  useful  for  tweaking 
camera  positions. 

Of  course,  you  can  achieve  some 
ofthese  results  using  a  perspective 
viewport.  But  a  camera  has  another 
feature:  a  lens  -  or,  more  accurately,  an 
adjustable  focal  length.  This  allows  you 
to  play  with  the  perspective,  and  achieve 
the  sort  of  result  seen  in  Fig  2c. 

Focal  length  determines  the  camera’s 
field  ofview.  A  short  focal  length  (say 
1 5mm)  produces  a  wide  field  ofview 


254] 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Virtual  cameras  have  one  fundamentally  different  quality  to 
their  optical  equivalents:  they  have  infinite  focus  whatever 
the  focal  length,  lighting  conditions  and  depth  of  field. 
Everything  is  always  pin-sharp.  This  makes  the  virtual 
camera  capable  of  feats  impossible  to  reproduce  using  a 
physical  camera. 

For  an  animation  I  made  a  few  years  ago  for  the  BBC’s 
The  Net ,  I  had  the  camera  move  from  a  room  interior,  out  of 
a  window,  over  some  trees,  up  into  the  sky  (illuminated  by  a 
firework  display),  through  the  atmosphere  and  deep  into 
space  -  all  in  a  single  ‘take’.  This  would  have  been  optically 
as  well  as  physically  impossible  if  attempted  ‘for  real’, 
because  no  single  lens  would  be  capable  of  dealing  with  such 
a  variety  of  focal  lengths,  exposures  and  focus-pulls. 

Such  freedoms  are,  of  course,  liberating,  but  they  can  be 
a  liability  too.  They  can  produce  artificial-looking  results. 

We  are  all  unconsciously  aware  of  many  of  the  limitations  of 
the  camera  lens,  because  we  see  so  much  of  the  world 
through  one.  The  pin-sharp  focus  you  get  in  3D  graphics  is 
particularly  noticeable,  and  deprives  the  artist  of  one  of  the 
cinematographer’s  most  useful  tools.  By  manipulating  the 
focus  in  a  cinematic  scene,  you  can  manipulate  the 


audience’s  focus  of  attention.  You  can  also  provide  useful 
depth-of-field  cues,  showing  the  distance  of  one  object  from 
another  by  having  one  in  focus  and  the  other  blurred. 

As  far  as  I  know,  no  package  yet  includes  focus  as  a 
parameter  for  a  virtual  camera.  There  are,  however,  plug-ins 
now  becoming  available  that  can  be  used  to  simulate  focal 
effects.  I’ve  just  been  trying  Defocus  Dei,  which  is  bundled 
with  TGS’s  3D  modelling  program  Amapi  3D  and  can  also 
act  as  a  plug-in  for  Softimage,  Lightwave  and  3D  Studio 
MAX  (A  demo  can  be  downloaded  atwww.blackfeet.com). 

Defocus  Dei  works  by  generating  a  special  file  for  each 
frame  of  an  animation  that  contains  depth  (or  ‘Z-buffer’) 
information.  In  post-production,  this  file  can  be  used  to 
determine  which  part  of  the  scene  is  in  focus,  the  depth  of 
the  region  in  focus,  and  the  degree  of  blur  for  those  regions 
that  are  out  of  focus.  Because  it  uses  the  Z-buffer 
information  in  the  Defocus  Dei  depth  file,  the  result  is  a 
proper  3D  effect.  In  other  words,  it  determines  which 
objects  in  the  scene  will  be  in  focus  according  to  their 
distance  from  the  camera  as  set  up  in  the  original  3D  model. 
The  results,  as  you  can  see  from  the  images  above,  add  a 
dramatic  hint  of  realism. 


(like  a  wide-angle  lens);  a  long  focal 
length  produces  a  narrow  field  of  view 
(like  a  telephoto).  The  standard  focal 
length  of  most  real  cameras  is  35mm, 
and  when  you  set  up  a  virtual  camera 
within  a  scene,  this  is  usually  set  as  the 
default.  However,  in  the  virtual 


environment  ofa  3D  scene,  you  can  have 
lenses  ofjust  about  any  focal  length  you 
want,  including  several  that  would  be 
unfeasible  in  the  real  world. 

With  normal  cameras,  the  decision 
about  the  sort  of  lens  to  use  will  often  be 
restricted  to  where  you  can  physically 
place  the  camera.  This  means  that  short 
(ie  wide-angle)  lenses  have  to  be  used  in 
tight  interiors  simply  to  get  as  much  in  as 
possible,  while  long  (ie  telephoto)  lenses 
are  necessary  in  wide  open  spaces  where 
you  want  to  film  something  distant  and 
inaccessible.  With  a  virtual  camera, 
which  can  be  placed  just  about 
anywhere,  the  choice  of  lens  has  much 
more  to  do  with  depth  offield.  Ifyou  use 
a  short  lens,  depth  offield  increases.  In 
other  words,  the  distance  between  the 
objects  in  the  scene  appears  greater.  This 


means  ifyou  want  to  emphasise  the 
distance  between  the  foreground  and 
the  background  in  a  scene,  and  provide  a 
sense  of  space,  you  should  use  a  shorter 
lens.  Ifyou  want  to  give  the  impression  of 
everything  being  close  together,  you  use 
a  longer  lens. 

Next  month  I  will  look  at  how  you 
can  manipulate  this  depth  offield  to 
produce  more  dramatic  effects,  and  also 
look  at  another  important  feature  of  the 
camera:  the  ability  to  animate  it. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Benjamin  Woolley  welcomes  your 
comments  on  the  3D  Graphics 
column.  Contact  him  via  the  PCW 
editorial  office ,  or  email  3d@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


£55 


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Arrested  development? 

Are  you  ready  for  Windows  2000?  Tim  Anderson  looks  at  what  it  means  for  developers 


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Windows  2000  is 
coming  -  in  fact 
there  is  every 
indication  it  will  be 
released  before  the 
end  of  1 999.  Developers  are  wondering  if 
their  applications  will  still  run,  and 
whetherthe  new  Windows  will  be  more 
reliable  than  the  old.  AtTech-Ed, 
Microsoft’s  annual  European  technical 
conference  in  Amsterdam,  I  took  the 
opportunity  to  quiz  those  who  should 
know  what  Windows  2000  will  mean  for 
developers.  Here  are  a  few  key  points. 

^  Will  applications  still  run? 

Most  applications  that  run  on  Windows 
NT 4.0  will  run  on  Windows  2000.  The 
main  problem  area  is  installation.  The 
majorversion  number  has  changed  to 
5.0,  which  can  trip  up  some  installers. 

Because  it  is  the  install  that  is  most 
likely  to  fail,  some  applications  will 
migrate  smoothly  ifthe  system  is 
upgraded  to  Windows  2000,  but  will  not 
install  otherwise.  Another  potential 
problem  is  that  Windows  2000  has  a 
new  memory  manager.  Microsoft  says 
this  may  expose  bugs  in  your  application 
that  previously  went  unnoticed. 

It  does  not  end  there.  Windows  2000 
has  changes  to  the  NTFS  file  system, 
changes  to  the  API,  and  changes  to  the 
way  networking  is  implemented.  A 
Windows  2000  network  may  not  have 
NetBIOS,  the  basic  Microsoft  network 
API,  installed  at  all;  it  can  all  be  done 
through  the  new  Active  Directory  and 
internet-style  DNS  (Domain  Naming 
System).  Put  another  way,  this  is  a 
different  operating  system  so  nothing 
can  be  taken  for  granted. 

^  What  about  new  features? 

Having  your  application  run  is  only  half 
the  story.  Windows  2000  has  new 
features,  and  applications  which  do  not 
support  them  will  not  be  popular  with 
some  users. 

For  example,  multiple-monitor 
support  means  handling  negative  screen 
co-ordinates  correctly.  Built-in  power 
management  means  taking  appropriate 
action  when  the  system  tells  you  it  is 


going  into  suspend.  Another  issue  is 
classifying  the  file  and  configuration  data 
used  by  an  application,  so  that  it  works 
with  roaming  profiles.  Server 
applications  need  to  be  aware  ofthe 
Active  Directory. 

Will  it  be  more  stable? 

The  two  most  common  reasons  for 
Windows  instability  are  first, 
mismatched  versions  either  at  system  or 
application  level,  and  second,  bugs  in 
device  drivers.  There  are  a  couple  of 
changes  in  Windows  2000  that  should 
improve  the  situation. 

First,  there  is  an  extensive  list  of 
protected  system  files,  including 
everything  in  the  SYSTEM32  directory  on 
the  Windows  2000  installation  CD  that 
has  the  extension  .SYS,  .DLL,  .EXE  or 
.OCX.  The  system  will  not  allow  these  to 
be  overwritten,  except  by  official  service 
packs  or  operating  system  upgrades. 

Second,  applications  are  now 
expected  to  install  all  their  components 
into  the  application  directory,  increasing 
the  likelihood  of  duplicate  files  but 
ensuring  that  each  application  finds  the 
version  it  expects.  Even  COM 


▲  Fig  1  Microsoft 

IS  PROPOSING  A  TWO- 

components  are  track  service  pack 

accommodated,  scenario  for 

since  the  system  is  Windows  2000 
able  to  handle 

different  versions  ofthe  same  COM 
component  being  used  by  different 
applications,  by  redirecting  the  library 
loading  to  the  application  directory. 

Windows  2000  will  probably  prove 
more  stable  than  NT 4.0,  and  protecting 
system  files  is  a  great  idea,  but  it  won’t  be 
perfect.  The  success  ofthe  new  approach 
will  hinge  primarily  on  Microsoft’s  quality 
control  and  discipline. 

If  you  look  closely  at  the  proposals, 
there  is  some  worrying  untidiness.  For 
example,  there  are  four  ways  to  install  a 
protected  system  file:  from  the  install 
CD,  from  a  service  pack,  from  the 
Windows  update  website,  or  from  a  QFE 
(Quick  Fix  Engineering). 

This  last,  also  known  as  a  hot  fix,  is 
Microsoft’s  way  of  providing  quick 
solutions  to  specific  problems  (for 
example  a  security  hole  discovered  in 
Internet  Information  Server).  With  three 
ways  to  apply  updates,  there  will  still  be 
some  variety  in  the  exact  blend  of  system 
files  found  on  individual  machines. 


256] 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Another  worry  is  that  Microsoft  is 
proposing  a  two-track  service  pack 
programme.  The  idea  is  that  one  track 
will  not  introduce  any  new  features. 
Called  the  'Service  pack  track’,  it  will  only 
include  critical  fixes.  The  second  track, 
called  the  'Point  release  track’,  will 
include  new  features. 

If  all  you  want  to  do  is  to  keep 
applications  running,  use  the  safe  track, 
while  ifyou  want  enhancements,  then  the 
second  track  is  for  you.  You  can  hop  on 
board  the  safe  track  at  any  point,  which 
implies  a  multiplicity  of  service  packs. 

For  example,  you  might  want  to  fix 
the  feature  set  at  Windows  2000.1 ,  but 
still  apply  critical  fixes,  so  there  will  have 
to  be  separate  service  packs  for  Windows 
2000  and  for  Windows  2000.1,  and 
again  for  Windows  2000.2,  when  and  if 
the  time  comes  [Fig  1  ]. 

The  Microsoft  Installer 

Ifyou  have  looked  at  Office  2000,  you  will 
already  have  seen  the  Microsoft  Installer, 
which  includes  clever  features  like  'install 
on  demand’  and  'application  repair’. 

The  installer  itself  is  really  a  service 
provided  by  the  operating  system,  with 
an  API  and  a  COM  interface.  It  comes  as 
part  ofWindows  2000,  and  can  be 
added  to  Windows  9x  or  NT  4.0.  One  of 
the  benefits  is  that  component  reference 
counting  should  work  more  reliably,  so 
that  you  can  trust  the  dialog  that  invites 
you  to  delete  a  component  because  it  is 
no  longer  used. 

For  Windows  2000,  the  message  is 
that  you  have  to  use  the  installer,  or  fly 
in  the  face  ofthe  official  guidelines. 
Unfortunately  it  is  fairly  complex,  so  in 
practice  more  developers  will  use  an 
installation  kit  such  as  InstallShield  or 
Wise  rather  than 
rolling  their  own 
setup  application. 

^  Certified 
applications 

Use  ofthe 

Microsoft  Installer  is  mandatory  ifyou 
want  your  application  certified  for  the 
Windows  2000  logo.  This  is  intended  to 
be  a  more  rigorous  scheme  than  previous 
Windows  logo  efforts.  It  involves 
following  a  specification,  obtainable 
now  from  Microsoft,  that  lays  down  the 
requirements  for  a  well-behaved 
Windows  2000  application. 

Developers  who  do  not  want  to  pay 
Veritest,  the  authorised  testing  body,  for 


certification 
may  still  want 
to  follow  the 
guidelines. 

Topics 
covered 
include  power 
management, 
the  Active 
Directory, 
multiple 
monitor 
support,  and 
the  absence  of 
anyl  6-bit 
components. 

Apparently  ifyou  plead  a  strong  case 
you  might  get  away  with  some  16-bit 
stuff,  for  example  to  support  a  legacy 
system,  but  be  warned:  after  Windows 
2000  comes  64-bit  Windows,  which  will 
probably  not  support  1 6-bit  code  at  all. 

^  SQL  Server  for  everyone 

Microsoft  has  quietly  released  the  MSDE 
(Microsoft  Database  Engine)  as  a  free 
update  to  Visual  Studio  6.0.  This  is  big 
news.  MSDE  is  the  database  engine  of 
SQL  Server,  so  you  can  use  this  instead  of 
JET  (the  Access  engine)  in  applications, 
and  still  distribute  them  freely. 

Of  course,  there  are  restrictions. 
MSDE  is  intended  for  up  to  five  users 
only,  and  has  a  2-gigabyte  database  size 
limit.  The  minimum  system  for  MSDE  is  a 
Pentium  1 66  with  32  MB  RAM.  The  main 
benefits  are  for  applications  where  a 
laptop  user  wants  to  connect  to  SQL 
Server  and  then  work  with  the  data  offline. 

By  using  MSDE,  you  can  use  the  same 
data  access  code  for  both  the  local  and 
server  databases.  You  also  get  easier 
replication  and  more  reliability,  since 


Windows  2000 

Server  bm*&- m  cu 

Ihi  puiL£i  ii  p'iX+jik:  iPUiH  im 


After  Windows  2000  comes 
64-bit  Windows,  which  probably 
won’t  support  1 6- bit  code  at  all 


MSDE  logs  transactions,  enabling 
recovery  after  a  system  failure. 

■  Quick  results  from  SQL  Server 

Richard  Cowley  asks:  'I  am  upgrading  an 
application,  currently  written  in  VB3,  to 
VB6  and  SQLServer  7.  I  am  usingTrue 
DB  Grid  pro  bound  to  ADO  data 
controls.  I  have  a  Data  Environment 
connection  to  the  SQL  Server.  When  I 
have  to  display  a  large  recordset,  say 


▲  Major  apps 

RUNNING  ON  NT 
SHOULD  RUN  ON 

Windows  2000 


16,000 
records,  the 
grid  does  not  display  any  data  until  the 
entire  recordset  has  been  acquired. 

Is  there  a  way  to  display  the  grid 
quickly,  showing  enough  records  to  fill  at 
least  2  pages  while  the  remainder  ofthe 
recordset  is  being  acquired?  This  is  the 
way  that  Access  works.’ 

This  begs  the  question:  does  anyone 
really  want  1 6,000  rows  in  a  grid?  They 
will  hog  memory,  and  few  users  want  to 
scroll  through  that  many  records. 

The  first  answer  then  is  to  think  of 
ways  to  avoid  the  problem,  perhaps  by 
having  letters  ofthe  alphabet,  or  regions, 
or  product  categories,  that  you  can  select 
to  narrow  down  the  results.  Even  so, 
there  is  a  way  to  do  what  Richard  asks 
and  it  is  called  an  asynchronous  fetch. 

The  idea  is  that  the  first  results  are 
returned  almost  immediately,  so  that  the 
user  has  something  to  look  at  while  the 
rest  are  being  obtained.  The  bad  news  is 
that  I  cannot  find  away  of  doing  this 
through  the  Data  Environment  -  reader 
suggestions  are  welcome. 

Fortunately  you  can  easily  do  it  in 
code.  Fig  2  shows  an  example.  There  are 
a  few  points  to  note.  The  ADO  recordset 
object  is  declared  using  With  Events,  so 
that  you  can  handle  events  fired  by  ADO. 
When  you  do  this,  you  will  find  that  you 
can  select  the  recordset  variable  in  the 
left-hand  dropdown  in  VB’s  code  editor. 
The  right-hand  dropdown  then  gives  you 
all  the  available  events,  including 
FetchComplete,  used  here  to  inform  the 
user  that  all  the  records  have  been 
retrieved.  There  is  also  a  Fetch  Progress 
event,  but  it  appears  this  is  not  really 
supported  by  SQL  Server,  as  it  only 
reports  0  or  1  in  the  current  release. 

A  key  decision  in  any  SQLServer 
query  is  the  cursor  type  and  location. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


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visua  programming 


Look  up  cursor  types  in  the  VB  and  SQL 
Server  documentation  for  more 


•  Asynchronous  fetch,  unordered  result 
set:  <1  second  first  rows,  28  seconds  to 


information.  The  choice  here  can  make  a 
huge  difference  to  performance.  The 
Recordset’s  CursorType  and 
CursorLocation  properties  determine 
this.  There  is  also  a  MaxRecords 
property,  useful  ifyou  only  require  the 
first  part  of  a  result  set. 

The  asynchronous  fetch  itself  is 
obtained  by  using  the  adAsyncFetch 
constant  in  the  Options  parameter,  when 
calling  the  Recordset’s  Open  method.  In 
this  example,  I  got  the  following 
approximate  results: 

•  Standard  query,  unordered  result  set: 
20  seconds 

•  Standard  query,  ordered  result  set: 

30  seconds 


complete 

•  Asynchronous  fetch,  ordered  result 
set:  7  seconds  first  rows,  35  seconds  to 
complete 

The  figures  demonstrate  that 
although  the  asynchronous  fetch  is 
slower  to  complete,  the  benefit  to  the 
user  is  a  much  quicker  response.  If  the 
query  is  unordered,  it  is  near 
instantaneous.  In  general,  you  should 
never  order  a 
query  unless  you 
have  to.  Even 
though  ordering 
the  query  reduces 
the  benefit,  it  still 
delivers  results  far 


▼Asynchronous 

FETCH  GIVES  THE 
USER  A  FAST 
RESPONSE  ON 
LARGE  RESULT  SETS 


Asynchronous  Fetch  example 


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more  quickly. 
Most  users  will 
perceive  this  as 
better 

performance, 
even  though  the 
overall  time  is 
longer. 

■  Which 

database 

path? 

Richard 
Harrison  asks: 
‘How  would 
you  go  about 


using  a  connection  string  or  a  Universal 
Data  Link  with  an  application  that  could 
be  installed  anywhere  on  a  user’s  PC?’ 

There  are  a  few  choices  you  have  if 
you  need  to  know  the  location  of  a  file  or 
database,  but  want  the  user  to  be  free  to 
install  anywhere. 

First,  you  can  use  a  location  relative 
to  the  application  directory.  At  runtime 
you  can  detect  the  application  path  and 
go  from  there.  This  might  not  always  be 
suitable,  for  example  ifyou  wanted  a 
database  on  a  different  drive  from  the 
client  application,  or  if  it  were  shared 
between  several  applications. 

To  overcome  this,  you  can  use  either 
an  old-fashioned  .INI  file  in  the  Windows 
directory- frowned  upon  by  Microsoft’s 
guidelines  but  very  easy  for  you  to 
troubleshoot  -  or  the  registry.  Both  of 
these  options  provide  central  locations 
for  configuration  data  like  path  names, 
so  that  any  application  can  find  them. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Tim  Anderson  welcomes  your  Visual 
Programmingcomments  and  queries. 
Contact  him  at  or  via 

the  PCW  editorial  office. 

♦  For  developer  information  about  Windows 
2000,  the  Microsoft  web  site  is  the  place  to 
look,  starting  at  msdn.microsofi.com.  Here 
you  can  find  the  Application  Specif  cation  as 
well  as  compatibility  information. 

Download  MSDE  from 
www.  eu.  microsoft.  com. 


2H 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


On  FireWire 

Another  bright  spark  from  Apple  catches  hold  as  the  computer  industry  feels  the  need  for  speed 


JU^MJCsJ  '  cxhj 


mac 


•"I 


V 


FireWire 


◄  The  logo  that 

COULD  BECOME  A 
HOUSEHOLD  NAME 


handed  it  over  to  the  IEEE, 
who  decided  to  call  it 
IEEE1394.  But  that’s  not 
exactly  catchy,  so  everyone 
carried  on  calling  it  FireWire. 

However,  FireWire  is  an  Apple 
trademark,  so  other  companies  that  use 
the  interface  in  their  products  either  have 
to  call  it  IEEE1 394,  or  give  it  another 
name  entirely  -  Sony  calls  its  version 
iLink,  for  example.  One  interface  with 
three  different  names  -  only  the 
computer  industry  could  manage  that. 


pple’s  adoption  of  USB  for 
the  iMac  and  its  new  G3 
PowerMacs  has  been  an 
important  step  forward  for 
the  Mac  platform.  That’s 
why  we’ve  looked  at  a  number  of  USB 
products  in  recent  columns.  However, 
USB  isn’t  the  only  important  new  feature 
that  can  be  found  on  the  latest  Macs. 

Although  it’s  missing  from  the  low- 
cost  iMac,  all  ofthe  ‘professional-level’ 

G3  Macs  include  two  FireWire  ports. 
FireWire  has  actually  been  around  for  a 
few  years  now  and,  for  a  while,  it  looked 
like  it  might  just  be  another  good  idea 
from  Apple  that  got  ignored  by  the  rest  of 
the  industry. 

Even  now,  Macs  are  still  the  only 
computer  systems  that  include  FireWire 
as  a  standard  feature.  However,  it  does 
look  like  FireWire  might  be  taking  off  at 
last,  so  this  seems  like  a  good  time  to 
examine  the  technology,  its  capabilities, 
and  its  potential  for  the  future. 

FireWire  is  basically  a  kind  of  Super- 
USB.  It  provides  the  same  simple  plug- 
and-play 
installation, 
but  it’s 
much, 
much  faster 
than  USB. 

A  USB 

interface  provides  a  maximum  data 
transfer  rate  of  1 2Mbits/sec.  That’s  fine 
for  simple  peripherals  such  as  a  mouse 
and  keyboard,  or  even  entry-level  colour 
printers  and  scanners.  But  USB  just  can’t 
cope  with  the  sheer  amount  of  data 
involved  in  more  demanding  applications 
such  as  full-screen  digital  video. 

FireWire  can  handle  data  rates  as 
high  as  400Mbits/sec,  which  leaves  USB 
standing.  In  fact,  when  Apple  first 
developed  FireWire,  back  in  1994, 
nobody  paid  much  attention  to  it  simply 
because  nobody  believed  that  we’d  ever 
need  anything  that  fast. 

It  was  the  arrival  of  digital  video  that 
finally  gave  FireWire  a  chance  to  strut  its 
stuff.  A  couple  ofyears  ago,  companies 
such  as  Sony  and  Hitachi  began  to 


include  FireWire  interfaces  in  their  new 
DV  cameras,  simply  because  it  was  the 
only  type  of  interface  that  could  handle 
high-quality,  full-screen  video. 

So,  if  you’ve  got  a  G3  PowerMac  with 
FireWire  built-in,  you  can  plug  a  DV 
camera  straight  into  the  Mac  and 
capture  high-quality,  full-screen  video 
with  no  need  for  any  additional 
hardware.  Apple’s  QuickTime  video 
software  supports  the  DV  format,  so  you 
don’t  need  any  extra  software  either. 

The  ability 
of  G3  Macs 

to  work  so 
easily  with 
digital  video 
is  one  ofthe 
reasons  why  Apple  bought  the  Final  Cut 
video  editing  program  from 
Macromedia.  It’s  rumoured  that  Apple  is 
planningto  bundle  Final  Cut  with  certain 
PowerMac  models,  in  order  to  provide  a 
low-cost,  all-in-one  video-editing  system. 
Annoyingly,  Apple  has  yet  to  produce  a 
PAL  version  ofthe  software  that  can  be 
used  in  Europe,  but  we  hope  to  have 
more  information  about  Final  Cut  in 
time  for  next  month’s  column. 

It’s  worth  pointing  out  that  FireWire  is 
actually  known  by  more  than  one  name. 
FireWire  was  the  original  name 
trademarked  by  Apple,  but  any 
technology  that  hopes  to  get  adopted  by 
the  rest  ofthe  industry  has  to  be  ratified 
by  the  I EEE  -  the  I  nstitute  of  Electrical 
and  Electronic  Engineers.  So  Apple 


Whatever  it’s  called,  if  you’ve  got  huge 
video  files  on  your  hard  disk  it  makes 
sense  to  use  a  FireWire  interface  on  the 
hard  disk  as  well.  That  way  you  can 
retrieve  those  files  and  play  them  or  edit 
them  without  having  to  wait  ages  for  the 
files  to  load.  FireWire  hard  disks  are  just 
starting  to  appear,  and  they’re  versatile 
as  well  as  fast.  You  can  connect  and 
disconnect  a  FireWire  hard  disk  while 
your  Mac  is  running,  without  doing  any 
damage.  And,  ifyou’re  actually  playing 
video  when  the  disk  is  unplugged,  all  that 
happens  is  that  the  video  pauses  on 
screen.  Plug  the  disk  back  in  and  the 
video  carries  on  as  if  nothing’s  happened. 

FireWire  could  also  be  used  in  high- 
end  printers  and  scanners  in  the  pre¬ 
press  industry.  Low-cost  printers  and 
scanners  designed  for  home  users  tend  to 
use  USB,  but  ifyou’re  working  with  huge 
colour  graphics  files  you  need  the  speed 
of  FireWire. 

More  important,  though,  is  the 
potential  for  using  FireWire  outside  the 
computer  industry.  There  is  a  group  of 
electronics  companies  -  including,  er, 
Sony  and  Hitachi  again  -  which  is 
planning  to  use  FireWire  as  a  method  of 
networking  audio-visual  devices  such  as 
TVs,  VCRs  and  CD  players.  Ifthis  takes 
off,  FireWire  could  spread  through  the 
entire  consumer  electronics  industry  as 
well  as  the  computer  industry. 

But,  Apple  being  Apple,  there  has  to 
be  a  fly  in  the  ointment  somewhere.  In 
this  instance  it  was  Apple’s  attempt  to 
charge  a  licensing  fee.  It  was  rumoured 
that  Apple  wanted  to  charge  a  fee  of  $1 


FireWire  could  spread 
through  the  entire  consumer 
electronics  industries  as  well 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  •  sm 


mac 


LETS  GET  SERIAL 

At  long  last,  there  are  a  number  of  USB 
floppy  disk  drives  available  in  the  UK 
which  can  be  used  with  iMacs  and  G3 
PowerMacs.  However,  until  now,  IVe 
been  completely  stumped  for  an  adaptor 
that  will  allow  you  to  use  other  types  of 
peripherals,  such  as  modems  and  digital 
cameras,  with  these  machines. 

Like  Mac  printers,  these  peripherals 
originally  used  serial  ports  to  connect  to 
the  Mac,  but  the  entire  Mac  range  has 
now  abandoned  serial  ports  and  adopted 
USB  instead.  There  are  a  number  of 
options  for 
using  old 
printers  with 
USB  Macs, 
such  as 
Info  Wave’s 
PowerPrint, 

but  these  tend  to  be  designed  specifically 
for  printers,  and  often  don’t  work  with 
modems  and  other  types  of  peripherals. 

Fortunately,  there  are  now  two  answers 
to  this  problem.  The  first  is  the  Stealth 
Serial  Port.  This  connects  to  the  internal 
modem  socket  inside  all  the  new  G3 


Macs  and  turns  the  modem  port  into  a 
serial  port  that  can  then  be  used  to 
connect  any  kind  of  serial 
peripheral. 

I  tried  it  with  a  modem,  an 
Epson  printer  and  a  digital 
camera  and  it  worked 
perfectly.  It’s  easy  to  install, 
but  it  assumes  you  don’t 
already  have  an  internal 
modem  in  your  machine.  (I 
don’t,  so  this  is  an  easy  way 
for  me  to  use  my  old  serial  modem.) 


It  can’t  be 

The  entire  Mac  range  has 
now  abandoned  serial  ports 
and  adopted  USB  instead 


used  with 
iMacs, 
though,  as 
these  have 
internal 
modems 

built-in. 

The  other  option  is  Entrega’s  USB-to- 
Serial  Adaptor.  One  end  of  the  adaptor 
plugs  into  a  USB  port  on  the  iMac  or  G3, 
while  the  other  has  a  serial  port  allowing 
you  to  connect  serial  peripherals.  The 
only  drawback  is  that  the  adaptor  isn’t 


compatible  with  a  wide  range 
of  printers.  Entrega’s  got  some  useful 
USB  gadgets  in  its  range,  but  seems  to 
have  trouble  with  the  software  for  the 
Mac  versions  of  these  products.  However, 
take  a  look  at  Entrega’s  web  site 
www.entrega.com  to  see  if  the  adaptor  is 
compatible  with  the  peripherals  you 
want  to  use. 


or  $2  for  every  single  product  that 
included  a  FireWire  interface.  That  mi; 
not  sound  like  much,  but  ifyou’re 
Sony  and  you’re  selling  millions 
of  CD  players, 

TVs 

and 


VCRs  every  year,  it  can  soon  add  up  to  an 
awful  lot  of  money.  Apple  eventually 
settled  for  a 

fee 


AThe  G3 
PowerMacs 
have  FireWire 

AS  STANDARD 


thought  to  be  about  25  cents,  but  not 
before  it  had  scared  off  a  lot  of  potential 
FireWire  licencees. 

Even  if  FireWire  doesn’t  find  its  way 
into  other  types  of  electronic  devices,  its 
sheer  speed  makes  it  invaluable  for 
working  with  digital  video.  So  FireWire 
will  probably  continue  to  be  used  in 
Macs  and  in  various  digital  video 
products.  However,  it  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  Apple  can  attract  enough 
support  from  the  rest  ofthe  computer 
and  consumer  electronics  industries  to 
allow  FireWire  to  reach  its  full  potential. 

PCW  CONTACTS 

Stealth  Serial  Port 
Price:  £49. 99 WAT 

Contact:  Computer  Warehouse  0181 400 
1234 

Entrega  USB-to-Serial  Adaptor 
Price:  E42.55+VAT 
Contact:  Entrega  0118  965  775 1 
Cliff  Joseph  welcomes  your  feedback  on 
the  Mac  column.  Contact  him  via  the 
PCW  editorial  office  or  email 
mac@pcw.co.uk 


262 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


1  ,  n  (  i  T _ L 


u 


networks 


Keyed  up 

Bob  Walder  unlocks  the  facts  you  need  to  protect  data  being  shared  over  unsecured  links 


Ifyou  have  been  following  our 
advice  in  recent  months  you  will 
have  looked  at  Internet  and 
network  security  issues,  as  well  as 
implementing  email  services - 
whether  using  an  ISP  or  hosting  your 
own  mail  server. 

These  areas  are  not  exclusive  and  it  is 
at  this  stage  that  you  should  consider 
email  security.  But  before  we  jump  into 
the  practicalities  of  implementing  public 
key  security,  we  need  to  cover  some  of 
the  theory  behind  it.  Basically  what  we 
are  talking  about  is  encryption  -  to  keep 
the  content  ofyour  messages  private  - 
and  digital  signatures  to  authenticate  the 
origin  ofthose  messages. 

In  the  best  tradition  of  the  James 
Bond  novel,  encryption  is  all  about  secret 
codes,  transforming  plain  text  into  a 
form  unreadable  by  anyone  without  a 
secret  decryption  key.  Its  purpose  is  to 
allow  secure  communication  over  a 
general-purpose  insecure  channel,  such 
as  the  Internet. 

Although  the  mathematics  behind  it 
can  be  very  complex,  encryption  itself  is 
pretty  straightforward.  Cast  your  minds 
back  to  when  you  were  kids  and  you 
wanted  to  send  secret  messages  to  each 
other.  The  simplest  form  of  encryption 
was  the  one  where  every  letter  of  the 
alphabet  was  substituted  for  the  one  ‘n’ 
positions  following  it. 

The  two  important  buzzwords  in  this 
field  are  key  and  algorithm.  The  ‘key’ 


represents  the  number  of  positions  we 
are  shifting  the  letters,  while  the 
‘algorithm’  is  simply  the  idea  that  the 
encrypted  letter  is  the  one  ‘n’  places 
following  the  plain  text  letter.  Using  this 
logic,  encrypted  text  =  plain  text  +  n. 

There  are  two  ways  you  can  beef  up 
security  on  this  front:  increase  the  length 
of  the  key  and  devise  ever  more  complex 
algorithms.  Luckily,  we  don’t  have  to 
create  our  own  algorithms,  as  there  are 
perfectly  acceptable  standards  out  there. 
The  most  widely  used  standards  are  DES 
(Data  Encryption  Standard),  triple  DES, 
IDEA  (International  Data  Encryption 
Algorithm)  and  RC4  (an  algorithm 
developed  by  Ron  Rivest  of  RSA  as  a 
stream  cipher  with  a  variable  key  length). 

Whereas  the  original  DES  algorithm 
uses  56-bit  keys, 
later  and  more 
powerful  systems 
use  much  longer 
ones,  forcing 
potential  hackers 
to  run  through 
trillions  of 
combinations  in 
any  attempt  to  find 
the  right  one  by 
brute  force.  Triple 

◄With  secret  key 

ENCRYPTION  BOTH 
PARTIES  NEED  A 
KEY  TO  SWAP  DATA 


◄  Encryption  is 

EASILY  EXPLAINED 
AS  A  CHILD’S 
SECRET  CODE 

DES  is  an 
enhanced  version 
ofthe  original  DES 
algorithm  and 
encrypts  data  three 
times  usingthree 
different  keys 
(providing  an 
effective  key  length 
of  1 1 2  bits).  IDEA 
is  a  1 28-bit 
mechanism 
developed  by  the 
University  ofZurich  in  1 992  and  is 
currently  a  favourite  of  European 
financial  institutions. 

^  Secret  Key  Cryptography 

As  you  would  imagine,  the  longer  the  key 
length,  the  more  secure  the  encryption. 
Going  back  to  our  simple  cipher,  ifour 
single  digit  key  is  represented  by  a  letter 
ofthe  alphabet,  a  potential  hacker  only 
has  to  try  26  possible  combinations  in 
order  to  crack  the  code.  Now,  if  we 
increased  the  length  ofthe  key  and  wrote 
it  beneath  our  original  message 
(repeating  the  key  over  and  over  until  it 
was  equal  to  the  length  ofthe  message), 
each  character  in  the  key  would  represent 
a  different  shift  for  the  letter  above.  Of 
course,  ifshort  keys  are  used,  then 
repeating  patterns  may  begin  to  emerge 
in  the  message.  The  most  secure  method 
is  therefore  to  use  a  key  the  same  length 
as  the  message  itself,  but  this  is 
impractical  in  real  life  situations. 
Combine  long  keys  with  sophisticated 
algorithms,  however  (something  more 
complex  than  ‘shift  each  letter  ofthe 
message  by  the  value  ofthe  key  character 
beneath’)  and  you  are  in  business. 

Unfortunately,  ‘secret  key’  (or 
‘symmetric  key’  cryptography  as  it  is 
known)  relies  on  both  parties  involved 
having  access  to  the  same  secret  key.  This 
is  because  the  sender  uses  the  key  to 
encrypt  the  message,  and  the  receiver 
uses  the  same  key  (together  with  the 


Secret  Key  Cryptography 

*  Both  parties  must  have  same  secret  kay 
+  Secure  exchange  is  Essential 


■jryy  I  hr  Mfnft  Stm-.l-  K*y 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


H 


toil 


networks 


A  MUST  HAVE  FOR  YOUR 
BOOKSHELF 


Travelling  quickly  through 
what  the  author  calls  the 
'basic  transports  and 
plumbing^  the  book  covers 
the  OSI  model  and 
everything  about  the 
various  network  interfaces 
and  services^  before  giving 
us  all  the  gen  on  the 
multitude  of  Internet 
transport  protocols  -  IP; 


TCP,  UDP,  ICMP  and  so  on. 
No  frills,  no  fuss  -  just  a 
solid  reference  manual  for 
anyone  involved  with  the 
Internet. 

Title:  Internet  Standards 
and  Protocols 
Author:  Dilip  C.  Naik 
Publisher:  Microsoft 
Price:  £27.49 
ISBN:  1-57231-692-6 


same  algorithm  in  reverse)  to  decrypt  the 
message.  This  introduces  a  potential 
problem  -  how  do  you  ensure  that  the 
key  is  distributed  in  a  secure  manner? 

If  you  have  regular  contact  with  the 
person,  you  can  pass  the  key  face  to  face 
-  you  cannot  get  much  more  secure  than 
that.  In  business  terms,  secret  keys  (such 
as  bank  PIN  numbers)  are  often  sent  out 
by  mail  in  special  tamper-proof 
envelopes.  They  can  also  be  encapsulated 
in  hardware  devices  such  as  smart  cards, 
where  the  issuing  authority  never  gives 
the  customer  access  to  the  key 
information  at  all. 

But  in  the  case  of  one-off  Internet 
transactions  with  hitherto  unknown 
parties,  we  do  not  have  that  luxury.  As  a 
result  ofthe  unique  key-pair  arrangement 
between  the  two  parties,  it  is  impossible 
to  exchange  data 
with  someone  to 
whom  you  have 
not  already  been 
'introduced’. 
Neither  of  you  has 


T  Public  keys 

CAN  BE  PUBLISHED 
OPENLY  BUT  STILL 
REQUIRE  THE 
PRIVATE  KEY  TO  BE 
DECIPHERED 


exchange  of  data. 


(•"Public  Key  Cryptography 

One  way  of 
overcoming  the 
problem  of  secure 
transactions  with 
partners  you  have 
had  no  previous 
dealings  with  is  to 
use  'public  key’  or 
'asymmetric  key’ 
cryptography.  The 
mathematics 
behind  public  key 
cryptography  are 
exceedingly 
complex,  but  the 
procedure  can  be 
explained  fairly 
simply.  Using  this 

system  each  person  gets  a  pair  of  keys, 
known  as  the  public  key  and  the  private 
key.  The  public  key  is  generated  from  the 
private  key  using  a  complex  algorithm, 
following  which  the  public  key  can  be 
published,  while 


he  will  encrypt  it  using  Alice’s  public  key 
(which  can  be  published  in  a  directory  or 
distributed  via  unsecured  e-mail).  The 
only  person  who  can  decrypt  the 
resulting  message  is  the  holder  ofthe 
appropriate  private  key  -  in  this  case 
Alice.  Thus,  the  need  for  sender  and 
receiver  to  share  secret  information  is 
eliminated,  since  all  communications 
involve  only  public  keys,  and  no  private 
key  is  ever  transmitted  or  shared.  The 
best  known  and  most  widely  used 
asymmetric  key  technologies  are  Diffie- 
Hellman  and  RSA. 

Although  providing  the  highest  levels 
of  security,  public  key  cryptography  is 
notoriously  heavy  on  system  resources, 
particularly  when  working  on  large 
messages.  For  performance  reasons, 
therefore,  RSA  is  usually  used  only  to 
exchange  keys,  whilst  a  conventional 


Public  Key  Cryptography  2 

*■  A  mixture  uf  public  key  and  secret  key  is 
normally  used 


a  shared  secret 
key,  and  there  is 
no  secure  channel 
over  which  to 
exchange  one.  For 
this  reason,  secret 
key  cryptography 
works  best  when  a 
single  issuing 
authority 
maintains  a 
service  fora  user 
base.  Information 
can  then  be 
safeguarded  by  a 
registration 
process  that  takes 
place  prior  to  the 


Public  Key  Cryptography 

*  Public  and  private  keys  are  matched  pairs 
+  One  canned  be  determined  from  the  other 


Qn.*:  fcrtLt-yprrfd  Putslic  <K-f  rhd  rratittijg*  ns 

■Illy  L>-  :!^  ry|irKrJ  i  mri|  1  is  rr-r-  v  “|;.pi  i  rvj  fri 


the  private  key 
remains  secret. 

Any  message 
that  is  encrypted 
with  a  given  public 
key  can  only  be 
decrypted  using 
the  corresponding 
private  key,  and 
there  is  no  known 
way  to  derive  the 
private  key  from 
the  public  key. 

Now,  if  Bob 
wishes  to  send  a 
message  to  Alice, 


▲  Mixing  types 

of  encryption  secret-key 

CUTS  DOWN  ON  crypt0graphy 

USED  RESOURCES  ,  \ 

system  (such  as 

DES)  is  used  for  the  bulk  ofthe  message. 

Suppose  Alice  wishes  to  send  an 
encrypted  message  to  Bob.  She  first 
encrypts  the  message  with  DES,  using  a 
randomly  chosen  DES  'secret’  key,  which 
can  be  different  for  every  message  sent. 
Then  she  looks  up  Bob’s  public  key  and 
uses  it  to  encrypt  the  DES  key.  The  DES- 
encrypted  message  and  the  RSA- 
encrypted  DES  key  together  form  a 
'digital  envelope’.  Upon  receiving  this 
digital  envelope,  Bob  decrypts  the  DES 


f  CONTACTS 


Bob  Walder  is  a  journalist  and  networking 
consultant  based  in  Bedfordshire.  He  can  be 
contacted  via  e-mail  at  the  usual  address 

networks@pcw.  vnu.  co.  uk 


J 


261 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Top  10  products 


Soul  long,  suckers 

Crystal  Dynamics 

released  its  flagship 
title  Legacy  of  Cain: 

Soul  Reaver  in  late  August,  a 
gothic  3D  action  affair.  You 
play  Raziel,  a  creature  who 
roams  the  world  absorbing  the 
souls  ofthe  victims  that  he 
kills.  Beginning  without  any 
weapons  and  few  skills,  you 
roam  the  open  environment, 
using  objects  that  you  find 
and  learning  skills  from  the  people  you 
meet  to  complete  the  game.  Crystal 
Dynamics  is  especially  proud  of  its 
‘Predator  Al’,  which  allows  enemies  to 
learn  your  moves  and  hunt  you  down. 

If  you  have  ever  fancied  being  a  true 
swashbuckler,  check  out  Cutthroats,  a 
pirate  strategy  from  Hothouse  Creations. 

As  the  commander  of  a  pirate  ship,  you 
must  work  your  way  up  from  a  small 
trading  vessel  to  a  galleon,  by  stealing 
cargo  from  innocent  ships  and  raiding 
Spanish  towns.  Checkout www.eidos 
interactive.com  for  more  on  both  titles. 

Sold  Out  tries  to  increase  its  budget 
market  presence  with  the  introduction  of 


AThe  west  gets 

WILD  IN  THE  TIE-IN 

its  Extreme  range,  game  to  the  Will 

re-releasing  older  Smith  movie 

games  for  only 

£9.99.  Launched  on  the  ninth  day  ofthe 
ninth  month  of  1 999  (when  else?),  the 
initial  titles  are  Dark  Colony,  Special 
Ops,  Three  Lions  and  Archipelagos. 

SouthPeak  Interactive  is  hoping  that 
all  the  hype  surrounding  the  Will  Smith 
film  Wild,  Wild  West  (above)  will  rub 
off  on  its  tie-in  game.  The  developer  and 
publisher  is  claiming  that  the  game  will 
combine  the  ‘irreverent  humour  ofthe 
movie  with  adventure  puzzle-solving  and 
twitch  action’.  Checkout: 
www.southpeak.com  for  more  details. 


A  game  of  conquerers 


After  what  seems  like  an  eternity 
ofwaiting,  the  Command  & 
Conquer  saga  is  set  to  continue. 
Command  &  Conquer  was,  and  still  is 

to  many 
die-hard 
advo¬ 
cates,  the 
definitive 
real-time 
strategy 
game. 
Tiberian 
Sun  sees 


◄Strap  on  your 

GOGGLES  AND 
SEEK  OUT  YOUR 
ENEMY 


the  continuing  struggle  between  the  GDI 
or  Global  Defence  Initiative  (the  good 
guys)  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Nod  (the 
bad  guys). 

Due  for  release  on  the  26th  of 
August,  Command  &  Conquer:  Tiberian 
Sun  will  undoubtably  be  one  ofthe 
biggest  games  of  1 999.  If  the  initial 
sales  of  Red  Alert  (the  last  C&C  title) 
are  anything  to  go  by,  you  should  prob¬ 
ably  reserve  your  copy  early. 

With  almost  all  the  big  PC  releases 
looking  like  first  person  shooter  clones, 
it’s  good  to  see  something  different  on 
the  horizon.  Don’t  forget,  the 
Global  Defence  Initiative  needs 
your  help  to  defeat  the  evil  Kane. 
www.tiberiansun.com 


Windows  software 

Microsoft 
Symantec 
Microsoft 
Microsoft 


1  Office  2000  Premium  ug 

2  Norton  Anti-Virus  v5  std 

3  MSWorksv4.5 

4  Office  Pro  2000  CD/ ug 

5  MSOffice  Pro  97+books  ug  Microsoft  4 

6  WINDOWS  98  CD/ug  Microsoft  6 

7  MSOffice  97  std  v/comp  Microsoft  7 

8  Windows  98  v2.0  ug  Microsoft 

9  Uscan  v4  classic  Net_associ  10 

1 0  McAfee  Office  Net_associ  - 

DOS  software 

1  Turbo  Pascal  v7DOS  edu.  Borland  1 

2  MSDOSv6.22ug  Microsoft  - 

3  PC  DOS  2000  vl  CD  IBM  2 

4  Novell  3.1 2-4.2  5-user  ug  Novell 

5  Laplinkv5 Traveling  3 

6  Netware  3.2  5-user  ug  Novell 

7  Netware  3.2  5-user  Novell 

8  Novell  Sup  Conn  Monthly  CD  Novell 

9  MS  Mail  PC  Remote  3.2  Microsoft  - 

1 0  Groupwise  ug  5.5  5-user  Novell 

Peripherals 

1  32Mb  8x32  60ns  EDO  72pin  GSI 

2  16Mb  4x32  60ns  EDO  72pin  GSI 

3  Delta44X  Int  EIDE  CDROM  ? 

4  64Mb  1 00M  Hz  SDRAM  GSI 

5  Stylus  Photo  Color  750  Epson 

6  Stylus  Color  640  1440dpi  Epson 

7  Stylus  Color  740  Epson 

8  32Mb  168pin  SDRAM  mod  ugGSI 

9  HP  De  skjet 420  colour  Hewlett 

10 128Mb  lOOMHzSDRAM  GSI  10 

CD-ROMS 

1  Star  Wars:  Ep  1  Insiders  Guide  LucasArt  1 


2  Dance  EJ2 

3  Music  Makers  Three 

4  Music  Studio 

5  Simpsons  Virtual  Springfield 

6  South  Park  Screen  Saver 

7  Simpsons  Cartoon  Studio 

8  Austin  Powers 

9  X-Files  Interactive  Guide 

1 0  Dance  EJ2  Sample  Kit 

Games 

1  Kingpin  Activision 

2  Hidden  and  Dangerous  Take  2 

3  Alien  vs  Predator  Elect.Arts 

4  Half  Life:  Game  of  the  Year  Take  2 

5  ChampioshipManagerThree  Eidos 

6  Rainbow  Six:  Gold  Edition  Take  2 

7  Dungeon  KeeperTwo  Elect. Arts 

8  Flyl  Elect. Arts 

9  Phantom  Menace:  Ep  1  LucasArt 

1 0  Star  Wars:  Ep  1  Insiders  Guide  LucasArt 
Games  and  CD-ROM  figures  supplied  by  HMV. 
Others  from  Software  Warehouse. 


FastTrak 
Magics 
Magics 
Fox  Interact  - 
Telstar  4 
Fox  Interact  - 
Cendent 
Fox  Interact  - 
FastTrak 


2 

4 

1 

6 

10 

3 


266] 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Kingpin:  Life  of  Crime 

Turning  to  crime  can  help  you  get  your  revenge  in  this  X-rated  and  darkly  atmospheric  thriller. 


Kingpin  carries  a  BBFC 
age  certificate  claiming 
to  be  suitable  for  over  1 8s 
only.  The  reason  for  this  is 
threefold:  the  subject 
matter,  the  on-screen 
violence  and  the  explicit 
language. 

It’s  easy  to 
think  of  Kingpin 
as  just  another 
first-person 
shooter,  but  it 
has  something 
that’s  woefully 
absent  from  so 
many  games  in 
this  genre  -  a  plot.  Anyone  who  watched 
and  enjoyed  the  Mel  Gibson  movie 
Paybad c  will  love  this  game.  Like  Gibson, 
you  find  yourself  lying  on  the  floor  in  a 
very  bad  way,  with  only  one  thing  on 
your  mind  -  revenge. 

You  begin  the  game  in  a  seedy  back- 


alley  with  only  a  handy  lead  pipe  fora 
weapon.  Your  first  major  problem  is 
findingyourselfa  gun,  but  this  isn’t  as 
simple  as  it  sounds.  The  local  pawnshop 
is  more  than  willing  to  supply  you  with  a 
pistol,  but  you’ll  have  to  rob  a 
warehouse  in  order  to  pay  for  it. 

The  visuals  can’t  be  described  as 
ground-breaking,  but  the  rundown  and 
decayed  city  streets  set  the  scene 


perfectly.  You’ll  encounter  a  multitude  of 
shady  characters,  each  one  looking  like 
an  extra  from  The  Crow.  Sound  is  also 
first  rate,  with  very  effective  directional 
effects  making  it  easy  to  tell  if  someone  is 
around  the  next  corner. 

3D  support  is  OpenGL  only,  so  make 
sure  your  card  supports  it  before  you 
buy.  Of  course  there’s  a  multi-player 
death-match  option,  but  Kingpin  comes 
into  its  own  as  a  single  player  game. 

Riyad  Emeran 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  £39.99 

Contact  Interplay  0171  551  0000 
(Virgin) 

www.  urbangangsta.  com 

System  Specification  Pentium  233 , 
Windows  9 5/98/ NT,  64MB  RAM, 
570MB  Hard  Disk,  4x  CD-ROM,  DirectX- 
compatible  soundcard,  OpenCL-compliant 
3D  accelerator 


Outcast 

Life’s  tough  enough  as  a  Navy  SEAL,  without  finding  yourself  stuck  in  a  parallel  world. 


Waking  up  in  the  parallel 
world  of  Adelpha  with 
a  splitting  headache  is 
nobody’s  idea  of  a  good  start 
to  the  day,  unless  of  course 
you  are  a  US  Navy  SEAL  by 
the  name  of  Cutter  Slade. 

Outcast  is  spread  out  over 
six  different  geographical  regions,  all  of 
which  are  immense,  interspersed  with 
villages,  towns,  lakes  and  the  like. 


Essentially  an  action/ 
adventure,  Outcast  lets  you 
choose  between  a  first  and 
third-person  perspective.  You 
have  the  dual  mission  of 
helping  out  a  local  tribe  and 
finding  the  probe  that  sent 
you  there  in  the  first  place. 

The  programmers  have 
unusually  chosen  to  forgo 
the  3D  graphics  cards  so 
loved  by  most  PC  games 
today. 

Instead, 
they’ve 
plumped  for 
a  relatively 
unused 
procedural 
technology 
known  as 
voxels.  So  you 
don’t  need  a 
powerful  3D  card,  but  you  do  need  a 
powerful  processor -a  Pentium  III  ideally 
-  and  lots  of  memory. 


As  well  as  traipsing  around  the  lush 
scenery,  the  game  involves  lots  oftalking 
to  the  locals.  It’s  a  little  tricky  to 
remember  their  names  as  they  use  a  daft, 
incomprehensible  language,  but  it 
proves  to  be  time-consuming  and 
enthralling  in  equal  measures.  Outcast  is 
unlikely  to  fade  quickly,  with  its  large 
variety  ofweapons  and  gadgets,  and  the 
chance  to  ride  the  kangaroo-like  wildlife 
through  six  different  worlds. 

Jim  Haryott 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  £40 

Contact  Infogrames  0161  827  8000 
www.  outcast-game,  com 

System  Specification  Windows  95/98, 
Pentium  200MHz processor  (Pll  300MHz 
recommended),  32MB  of  memory,  (64MB 
recommended),  500MB  of  free  hard  disk 
space,  quad-speed  CD-ROM  drive,  ( 8- 
speed  recommended),  1  MB  graphics  card, 
(2MB  card  recommended),  soundcard 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  •  ftffYA 


Gruntz 


Well  I  never...  Lemmings  with  a  sense  of  survival!  A  deceptively  simple  and  seductive  game. 


The  intro  movie  for  Gruntz 
started  recollections  of  the 
gross  character  Fungus  the 
Bogeyman ,  who  terrorised  the  kids 
years  ago,  but  once  the  game  gets 
going  those  fears  are  quickly 
dispelled.  The  child-like  creatures 
ofthe  title  are  in  fact  incredibly 
cute,  with  any  offensive  noises 
passed  off  as  endearing  mischief 
The  excitement  begins  after 
curiosity  gets  the  better  ofthe 
Gruntz  and  they  are  whisked  away 
through  a  twisting  worm- 
hole  into  an  unknown 
land.  Thus  begins  their 
long,  perilousjourney 
home,  with  your  help  as 
their  leader,  tackling 
devilishly  tricky  puzzles 
and  mischievous  enemies 
on  the  way. 

Played  from  God’s  perspective,  the 
eight  themed  worlds  scroll  across  the 
screen  as  you  begin  locating  and 


assembling  eight  magical 
Warp  Stones.  At  your  disposal 
are  over  60  unique  tools,  toys, 
power-ups,  secret  items  and 
spells  to  help  you  navigate 
through  the  puzzles  and 
defeat  unwary  enemies.  In  a  sticky 
situation,  you  could  either  grab  a  big 
club  and  act  offensive  or  try  and 


distract  the  enemy  with  a  shiny  yo-yo. 

As  well  as  the  single-player  quest 
mode  there’s  the  opportunity  to  battle 
your  tribe  of  Gruntz  against  up  to  four 
players  over  the  Internet  or  LAN  in  the 
multi-player  battle  mode.  Family  appeal 
is  heightened  through  a  simple  learning 
curve  to  the  game’s  schematics  with  an 
option  to  advance  the  basics  for  adults. 

Although  not  the  most  stunning 
game  graphically,  it  has  long  term  appeal 
through  sheer  game  play  alone. 

Ian  Robson 


PCWDFTAII.S _ 

•kirk 

Price  £1 9.99  inc  VAT 

Contact  Code  masters  01926  814132 

www.gruntz.com 

System  Specification  Pentium  133  or 
equivalent ,  32MB  RAM ,  2MB  SVGA 
video  card  1 00MB  free  hard-disk  space ,  4x 
CD-ROM ,  Windows  95/98 


Lego  Racers 

Fancy  a  day  at  the  races?  How  about  kit  car  racing  fun  with  knobs  on  -  Lego  style! 


To  put  it 

bluntly,  Lego 
Media 

International’s 
latest  game  is  the 
Lego  version  of 
Mario  Karts.  You 
select  from  a 
group  of  cute 
characters  (our 
favourite  being 
Joan  Of  Kart)  and 
choose  from  a  number  of  themed 
wacky  courses. 

The  game  is  based  on  Lego’s 
popularthemes  of  Pirates,  Castles, 
Space  and  Adventurers.  There  are  a 
number  of  racing  options,  the  main 
competition  being  the  circuit  races 
where  the  Rocket  Racer  challenges 
players  to  defeat  all  the  greatest  Lego 
Racing  champions  ofthe  Lego  Systems. 

Lego  Racer’s  most  attractive  feature, 
which  we  know  kids  and  adults  alike  will 


love,  is  that 
players  can 
build  their  own 
cars  and 
customise 
drivers  by 
selecting  pieces 
in  the  Lego 
garage.  Car 
handling  is  user 
friendly  and 
game 

movement  is 
impressively 
smooth,  with 
multiple- 
view 

perspectives 
and 

accelerated  3D  graphics. 

Experienced  racing  game  drivers 
won’t  find  it  hard  to  conquer  this  game 
within  their  first  few  attempts,  although 
to  be  fair,  the  target  Lego  Racers 


audience  is  aged  six  and  above,  and  a 
large  proportion  of  all  current  Lego  fans 
are  under  1 0.  But  you  don’t  need  to  be  a 
Lego  enthusiast  to  enjoy  this  game. 

Lego  Racers  does  succeed  along  with 
most  other  racing  games  in  that  it  can 
become  extremely  addictive  and  a  lot  of 
fun.  For  a  great  laugh  we’d  recommend 
the  two-player  mode  to  pit  your  driving 
wits  against  your  friends. 

Matthew  Howard 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★ 

Price  £34.99  inc  VAT 

Contact  Lego  Media  International  0181 

600  7200 

www.lego.com 

System  Specification  Windows 
95/98,  21 0MB(Hard  Disc),  4MB  Direct 
3D  video  card  (8MB  recommended),  High 
Colour  resolution  1 6-bit  ( 640x180 
minimum ),  Direct  sound  card,  PI  66  MMX 
( P200  MMX  recommended) 


261 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Alien  versus  Predator 


Blood  and  butchery  are  the  bangs  for  your  bucks  -  if  it  moves  shoot  it,  chop  it  or  tear  it  apart. 


It’s  a  good  job  we’ve  had  a  few  years  to 
get  used  to  violence  and  blood  in  PC 
games,  judging  by  this  gory  offering  from 
Fox  Interactive. 

Alien  versus  Predator  is  a  fast-paced 
gruesome 
shoot-em- 
up  in  which 
you  play  an 
Alien,  a 
Predator  or 
a  Colonial 
Marine  in 
three 
entirely 
different 
landscapes. 

There  are 
1 7  missions 
in  total,  six 
for  the  Marine  and  Predator,  and  five  for 
the  Alien.  But  in  orderto  tap  into  the 
bonus  levels  and  weapons  you  must 
complete  each  one  on  all  three  difficulty 
levels  -  no  mean  feat. 


Each 

character 
has  its  own 
strengths 
and 

weaknesses. 
The 

Predator 
can  make 
himself 

almost  entirely  invisible,  and  has  a 
fearsome  array  of  weaponry.  As  a  Marine 
you  are  the  weakest  but  you  have  the 
biggest  arsenal  to  choose  from,  and  you 
also  have  a  tracking  device,  telling  you  if 


any  unsavoury  beast  is  in  your  vicinity. 
The  Alien  has  only  his  jaw,  tail,  and  what 
pass  for  hands  -  but  it  can  clamber  over 
any  surface  and  cling  to  the  ceiling. 

With  sensational  graphics,  plus 
blood,  limbs  and  gunge  aplenty,  Alien 
versus  Predator  is  not  for  the  squeamish. 
But  in  the  form  room  of  first-person 
shooters,  it’s  top  of  the  class. 

Jim  Haryott 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  £40 

Contact  Fox  Interactive  ( through 
Electronic  Arts)  01 753  549442 
www.  foxinteractive.  com 

System  Specification  Windows  95/98, 
Pentium  200MHz processor  ( Pentium  II 
400MHz  recommended),  32MB  of 
memory  ( 128MB  recommended),  200MB 
of  free  hard  disk  space  (400MB 
recommended),  quad -speed  CD-ROM 
drive  (24-speed  recommended),  DirectX 
compatible  sound  and  3D  graphics  cards 


Amerzone:  Explorer’s  Legacy 

Jungle  fever  on  a  giant  scale  with  this  fun-packed  frolic  from  France. 


The  Amerzone  was 
originally  a  cartoon 
series  designed  by  French 
writer  and  graphic  artist 
Benoit  Sokal.  Now  it  has 
been  re-shaped  into  an 
interactive  PC  adventure 
game  boasting  some 
outstanding  graphics  and 
a  surreal  plot. 

Amerzone  is  a  30- 
adventure  game,  much 
like  the  classic  Myst  and 
Riven  titles.  However,  this 
whopper  has  four  CDs’ 
worth  of  hazardous  peril  -  enough  to 
make  even  Indiana  Jones  jealous.  Written 
by  French  developers  Microids,  it 
upholds  that  country’s  tradition  of 
producing  incomprehensible  games. 

Your  quest  takes  place  in  an 
imaginary  country  lost  in  the  depths  of 
South  America  and  ruled  by  a  power- 
crazy  dictator.  The  storyline  revolves 


around  the  legend  that  God  created  the 
‘White  Birds’  in  orderto  give  the  Indian 
race  eternal  life.  Since  a  sorcerer  stole  the 
eggs,  though,  a  malediction  has  hit  the 
Amerzone.  You  play  a  journalist  who  is 
the  only  one  able  to  save  the  country 
from  chaos.  Armed  with  just  your 
rucksack  and  journalistic  endeavour,  you 
have  been  sent  to  investigate  the  political 


and  ecological  goings  on  in  the 
Amerzonian  jungle. 

The  interface  is  very  simple,  to  appeal 
to  the  less  hardened  adventure  gamers, 
but  the  game  is  peppered  full  of  taxing 
puzzles.  Ifyou  don’t  like  having  to  switch 
CDs,  then  take  comfort  from  the 
knowledge  that  a  DVD  version  is 
promised  for  October. 

Luke  Peters 

PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Price  £34.99 

Contact  Code  masters  01926  814132 

www.  amerzone.  com 

System  Specification  Windows  95/98, 
Pentium  1 66MHz  processor  ( Pentium 
200MHz  recommended),  32MB  of 
memory  ( 64  MB  recommended),  1 00MB 
of  free  hard-disk  space,  8-speed  CD-ROM 
drive,  2MB  graphics  card  ( 4MB 
recommended),  Soundblaster  compatible 
soundcard 


Personal  Computer  World  •October  1999  • 


[269 


Baldur’s  Gate 

So,  you’ve  got  a  weekend  to  kill  and  no  friends.  How  about  a  relaxing  trip  to  the  Sword  Coast. 


Baldur’s  Gate  is  a 
sprawling  game  of 
heroes  and  magic,  based 
on  the  original  Advanced 
Dungeons  and  Dragons 
rules  and  boasting  five 
CDs  full  of  beautifully 
rendered  graphics.  The 
Tales  of  the  Sword  Coast 
is  only  one  CD,  but  it  has 
subtle  enhancements  that 
Interplay  added  at  the 
request  of  fans,  as  well  as 
new  areas  to  explore. 

You  start  by  choosing 
what  type  of  character  you  want  to  play: 
fighter,  wizard  or  thief,  ora  number  of 
combinations.  You  take  the  role  of  a 
young  adventurer,  cast  out  from  your 
home  and  forced  to  wander  the  Sword 
Coast.  Your  mission  is  to  find  out  what 
makes  you  special  and  why  people  seem 
to  be  trying  to  kill  you.  As  well  as  these 
assassins,  there  are  plenty  of  monsters 


and  rogues  that  are  out  to  get  you. 

But  the  game  is  not  just  about 
hacking  and  slashing:  there  are  allies 
along  the  road  who  mayjoin  you  (and 
you’ll  need  their  help!)  As  you  wander 
you  will  hear  gossip  and  rumours,  and 
these  are  recorded  in  your  personal 
journal,  which  serves  as  a  handy 
reference.  Complete  a  mission  and  there 


could  be  rewards  of  gold  or  magic  items. 

Those  familiar  with  the  Advanced 
Dungeons  and  Dragons  rules  will  have  a 
head  start,  but  it  is  not  essential.  These 
rules  have  been  modified  to  allow  the 
players  to  concentrate  on  the  role- 
playing  aspect  of  the  game.  With 
Baldur’s  Gate,  the  computer  does  all  the 
dice-rolling,  while  you  just  enjoy  making 
the  right  decisions. 

Barry  de  la  Rosa 


PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★★ 

Price  £39.99  (Baldur’s  Cate),  £19.99 
(Tales  of  the  Sword  Coast) 

Manufacturer  Interplay  01 71  551  4266 
www.  in  terplay.  com 

System  Requirements  Pentium 
1 66MHz  or  equivalent,  Windows  95  and 
DirectX  5  or  better,  1 6MB  RAM,  300Mb 
Hard  Disk  space,  4X  CD-ROM,  2MB 
video  card 


Byzantine  -  The  Betrayal 


Investigating  this  box  of  Turkish  delights  may  leave  you  drooling  over  your  next  holiday. 


A  summons  from  a  friend  finds  you  in 
modern  day  Istanbul,  as  an 
investigative  journalist.  After  being 
questioned  by  the  police,  you’re  left  in 
your  absent  friend’s  apartment.  You  have 
in  your  inventoryjust  a  few  items,  to 
which  you  must  search  out  and  add 
other  objects  along  your  quest. 

Following  the  trail  ofyour  friend’s 
prophetic  words,  your  mission  is  to 
uncover  the  truth  behind  the  legacy  of  a 
lost  civilisation.  To  fail  is  to  perish. 

Each  scene  you  find  yourself  in,  you 
must  explore  -  looking  for  clues  and 
objects  left  for  you.  The  things  you 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★ 

Price  £29.99 

Contact  Marshall  Media  0171  291  8222 
www.  marshallmedia.  com 

System  Requirements  Windows  95/98; 
Pentium  Processor  90+;  1 6MB  of  RAM; 
Windows  compatible  sound  card; 
video/audio  card;  2MB  of  video  RAM 


acquire  may  get  you  out  of  difficult 
situations.  By  examining  your 
objects,  you’ll  find  you  can  progress 
through  the  game,  while  a  map 
guides  you  each  time  you  leave  a 
scene.  New  places  to  visit  appear  as 
you  advance  on  your  quest. 

As  part  of  the  interactive 
adventure,  you  can  converse  with 
some  of  the  characters  you 
encounter,  or  eavesdrop  on  their 
conversations,  while  real-video 
sequences  treat  you  to  a  tourist’s  eye- 
view  of  the  city.  However,  although  you 
get  360-degree  vision,  your  directional 
movement  is  limited. 

The  game  is  not  hugely  challenging, 


but  it  is  enjoyable,  and  gives  a  great  taste 
ofTurkey  ifyou’re  interested  in  going. 

The  country’s  history  and  culture  appear 
to  have  been  well  researched  for  this 
action-adventure,  where  you  must  trust 
no  one  and  suspect  everyone. 

Helen  Fortgang 


270 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Hemera  Photo  Objects 

Worried  about  your  image?  This  library  of  25,000  alternatives  lets  you  illustrate  your  best  points. 


”3iJ 


mjj 


'  4ft  k  « 

*  iff  /  4  if  *  * 

:  2  ■  * 

MfmmM 

HT 


s  *»iuv  "  ■■■! 

H  ,  J,  ■■PWiM.^dN-h-  ■■  -I 


— ll— ■*  ■  ilg^ 


apeUj  UTBI 


Ifyou  need  to 
make  a  snazzy 
website, 
document  or 
PowerPoint 
presentation  you 
could  find 
yourself  running 
around  town  with 
a  digital  camera, 
madly  trying  to 
source  original 
material  to 
illustrate  it. 

Oryou  could 
let  someone  else 
do  the  hard  work 
for  you  and  use  a 
few  of  the  images  from  this  mammoth 
collection  of  25, 000  professionally  taken 
and  archived  photos.  Subjects  range 
from  chocolate  biscuits  (a  personal 
favourite)  to  cats,  and  from  love  to 
traffic  signs.  Once  you’ve  selected  your 


photo,  the  program  will  lead  you  step- 
by-step  through  a  simple  optimisation 
process,  asking  you  what  sort  of 
application  you’ll  be  using,  and  letting 
you  set  attributes  such  as  image  size  and 
whether  or  not  it  has  a  transparent 


background.  The  image  will  then  be 
grabbed  from  one  ofthe  CD  ROMs  and 
dropped  onto  the  drive  ofyour  choice. 

Photo  Objects’  second  function  is  to 
make  your  text  more  visually  pleasing  by 
applying  images  to  otherwise  bland 
standard  characters.  The  images  replace 
the  uniform  colour,  making  them 
suitable  for  use  as  a  banner  across  the 
top  of  a  web  page.  Changing  the  image  is 
a  simple  matter  of  clicking  on  a  new 
icon,  and  your  own  images  can  easily  be 
imported  and  incorporated. 

Nik  Rawlinson 

PCW  DETAILS _ 

★★★★ 

Price  £49.99 

Contact  Hemera  0171  372  9733 
www.  hemera.  com 

System  requirements  IBM- 
compatible  486  PC ',  8MB  RAM ,  Windows 
95 /  98  or  NT4,  1 5MB  hard  drive  space , 
256-colour  VGA  display 


Fifth  Realm  Tarot 


Your  future  could  be  on  the  cards  ifyou  try  out  this  tarot-reading  software. 


Like  other  tarot 
software,  Fifth 
Realm  provides 
you  with 
interactive  card 
readings.  You  are 
asked  to  choose 
the  card  that 
corresponds  with 
your  star  sign  and 
are  given  a  card 
layout.  You  then 
use  the  cursor  to 
pick  the  cards  you 
want  to  have  included  in  your  reading. 
Certain  star  signs  have  specific  card 
layouts,  something  I  have  never  come 
across  before.  For  instance,  I  am  a 
Capricorn,  an  Earth  sign,  so  my  layout 
included  far  more  cards  than,  say, 
Aquarius,  an  Air  sign.  No  explanation 
was  provided  for  this. 

One  by  one  the  cards  are  turned  over, 
but  unlike  a  traditional  tarot  reading,  the 
meanings  ofthe  particular  icons  are  not 
read  to  you.  Instead  you  are  given  very 


precise 
information 
about  their 
purpose. 
One  card 
told  me 
that  I 
would  be 
taking  a  trip 


to  Florida.  One  wonders  how  a  card 
could  possibly  interpret  such  a  thing, 
and  via  a  computer! 

Other  sections  in  this  software 
include  horoscopes.  There  is 


information  for  each  ofthe  1  2  signs  on 
personality,  love  and  partners,  career 
and  characteristics.  Another  section 
called  True  StarSigns,  raises  the  question 
as  to  whether  your  present  sign  is 
actually  your  real  one.  By  filling  in  details 
such  as  your  birth  date  and  time,  the 
computer  works  out  your  true  sign  and 
also  tells  you  the  day  ofthe  week  you 
were  born. 

Unfortunately,  as  good  as  this 
software  is,  I  couldn’t  help  feeling  I’d 
rather  have  visited  a  genuine  tarot  reader. 

Etelka  Clark 


pcwdftails 

★★ 

Price  £19.99 

Contact  Attica  Interactive  01 865 
791346 

www.attica.com 

System  Requirements  Win  95/98,  P90, 
1 6  MB  RAM,  4MB  hard  disk  space,  1 6-bit 
soundcard 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


271 


All  about  me 


If  you  want  your  kids  making  Identikit  images  of  Mum  and  Dad,  this  is  the  perfect  package. 


All  About  Me  is  the  perfect 
interactive  scrap  book  for 
children  to  keep  information 
concerning  everything  personal 
to  them. 

Aimed  at  ages  five  to  eight, 
the  software  includes  a  secret 
diary  and  sections  to  fill  in  about 
the  family,  school  and  hobbies, 
friends  and  pets.  In 
each  section  the  child 
can  create  pictures 
that  resemble  friends 
or  family  members 
and  can  keep  a  record 
of  stories  or  personal 
feelings  concerning 
these  people. 

There  are  added  sections  within  the 
main  headings.  Here  children  can  input 
details  about  when  they  were  born,  what 
their  first  words  were,  how  old  they  were 
when  they  learnt  to  ride  a  bike  or  tie  their 
shoe-laces  and  what  they  would  like  to 
do  when  they  grow  up.  Although  bright 


and  colourful,  the 
categories  of  careers  to 
choose  from  were  limited.  They  included 
being  a  musician,  a  fire  fighter  and  a 
ballet  dancer.  Yet  there  are  many  kids 
who  want  to  be  a  footballer,  bus  driver 
or  scientist,  but  there  was  no  option  for 
them  to  input  this  ifthey  wanted  to. 

It  is  evident  that  a  lot  of  thought  and 


effort  has  been  put  into  this 
software  to  ensure  the  maximum 
educational  benefit  for  the  child. 

This  package  is  very  clear  and 
simple  for  children  to  use 
unaided.  It  would  certainly  help 
to  develop  writing  skills,  self- 
expression  and  encourage 
creativity  while  providing  the  child 
with  a  ‘secret’  record  they  can  call 
their  own. 

A  brilliant  idea  that  is  bound 
to  be  a  big  hit  with  the  children. 

Etelka  Clark 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★★★ 

Price:  £79.99 
Contact:  Dorling  Kindersley 
0870  01 0  0350 

System  Requirements:  Win  95/98, 
486/33MHz,  1 0MB  hard  disk  space, 
8-bit  soundcard 


The  Smurfs  Printing  Workshop 

Smurf’s  up!  And  they’re  running  amok  over  your  stationary  and  inside  your  PC. 


I  would  need  at 
least  a  hundred 
toes  and  fingers  if  I 
were  to  count  the 
amount  of  themed 
printing 
workshops  we 
have  seen  over  the 
last  year  or 
so.  I’m  afraid 
to  say  that 
The  Smurfs 
isn’t  much 
different 
from  the 
others. 

The 

templates 
that  children 
can  work 

from  are  basic,  consisting  of  sections  for 
greeting  cards,  invitations,  posters, 
certificates,  postcards  and  notepaper. 
Each  ofthese  activities  can  be  printed 
either  horizontally  or  vertically. 


Once  a 
template  is 
selected, 
children 
can  choose 
from  a 
range  of 
Smurf 
pictures  to 
decorate 
their 

stationery 
with.  The 
bold  and 
colourful 

illustrations  can  be 
personalised  by  adding  text 
to  them.  Background 
colours  can  also  be  altered, 
although  when  I  attempted 
this  the  colours  I  chose  didn’t  seem  to 
correspond  with  the  colours  appearing 
on  my  activity.  I  clicked  on  pink  and  the 
background  turned  grey.  Green  turned 
to  blue  and  orange  turned  yellow. 


This  package  also  includes  a 
‘CustomSmurfer’  feature,  which  allows 
children  to  customise  the  Windows  95 
environment.  They  can  change  screen 
savers,  the  cursor  shape,  icons,  fonts  and 
add  background  wallpaper.  This 
however,  may  require  adult  supervision! 

Including  the  Smurfs  as  part  of  this 
package  will  certainly  appeal  to  a  young 
audience.  But  without  the  little  blue 
fellas  there  would  be  little  to  tell  it  apart 
from  other  printing  software.  Still,  for  a 
tenner  you  can’t  go  wrong. 

Etelka  Clark 

PCWDFTAIIS _ 

•kirk 

Price  £9. 99 

Contact  Europress  -  0 1 625  855000 

www.  europress,  co.  uk 

System  Requirements  Win  3. 1  or 

95,  486SX25  or  higher,  8MB  RAM, 

25MB  hard  disk  space. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


272 


books 


Competing  on  Internet  Time 


Knowing  this  book  was  just  about  to 
be  released,  the  authors  must  have 
been  kicking  themselves  when  the 
AOL/Netscape  merger  was  announced. 
Although  it’s  a  business  analysis  of  how  a 
company  can  successfully  compete  in  the 
internet  environment,  it  uses  Netscape  as 
the  prime  example,  and  champions  the 
company  greatly,  citing  it  as  the  anti- 
Microsoft  success  story. 

How  ironic,  then,  that  the  company 
should  now  be  swallowed  up  by  AOL. 

The  thrust 
ofthe  book 
loses 

though,  as 
it’s  a 
historic 
insight  into 
how  a 
young 


nothing  to 
that, 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Competing  on  Internet 
Time 

Authors  Michael  A 
Cusumano  and  David  B 
Yoffie 

Publisher  Free  Press 
ISBN  0684853191 
Price  £77.99 


upstart,  with  no  burdening 
infrastructure  and  a  real-world 
mentality,  was  able  to  jump  right 
into  the  major  league  by  using  the 
internet  as  its  primary  marketing 
channel.  Essentially,  it  was  able  to 
mobilise  faster  than  the  Microsofts 
and  IBMs  because  the  speed  ofthe 
Internet  environment  enabled  it  to 
be  light  on  its  feet. 

The  book  is  more  than  a  look  at 
the  legal  battles  between  Netscape 
and  its  rival  Microsoft,  however.  Only 
a  portion  ofthe  book  is  devoted  to 
this,  the  rest  being  a  well-researched, 
in-depth  analysis  of  everything  about 
Netscape,  from  the  design  ofthe 
browser  software  to  marketing  and 
distribution.  It’s  actually  a  book  for 
product  and  project  managers  - 
something  that  would  help  them  to  see 
both  the  pitfalls  as  well  as  the  successes. 

Written  in  an  accessible  style,  with 


quotes 

from  some  50  interviews 
interspersed  throughout,  Competingon 
Internet  Time  is  compelling  and 
enlightening,  although  it  will  really 
appeal  only  to  those  who  want  to  do 
more  than  scratch  the  surface  ofthe 
Netscape  story. 

Steve  Masters 


Direct  from  Dell 

Michael  Dell  is  a  remarkable  success 
in  business  terms  and  a  pleasant 
personality  in  social  terms.  He  has  now 
written  his  autobiography,  Direct  from 
Dell,  published  by  Harper  Collins.  Dell, 
according  to  the  book,  is  the  archetypal 
American  entrepreneur. 

At  the  age  of  12  his  best  friend’s 
father  was  a  stamp  collector  and  Michael 
got  interested.  But,  as  he  admits,  he  soon 
noticed  that  the  prices  ofthe  stamps  he 
was  collecting  were  rising  and, 
encouraged  by  his  stockbroker  mother, 
he  bought  as  many  as  possible  from 
friends,  wrote  and  mailed  out  a 
catalogue  and  then  began  selling  direct. 
Dell’s  reasoning  was  that  auctioneers  did 
nothing  unless  it  showed  a  profit,  and 
that  he  could  easily  undercut  their  rates 
and  make 
money. 

He  later 
bought  an 
Apple 

computer  and 
took  it  apart 
to  find  out 
how  it 

worked,  much 
to  his  parents’ 


PCW  DETAILS 

★★★★ 

Direct  from  Dell 

Authors  Michael  Dell, 
Catherine  Freedman 
Publisher  Flarper  Collins 
ISBN  0002570696 
Price  £79.99 


allegiance,  claiming  that  he 
recognised  that  IBM  would  be  a 
machine  that  would  be  used  in 
business  while  Apple  would  be 
confined  to  the  home  and  design 
niche  markets. 

By  the  age  of  1 8,  according  to 
Dell,  ‘I  knew  what  I  wanted  to  do: 
build  better  computers  than  IBM, 
offer  great  value  and  service  to  the 
customer,  and  become  number  one 
in  the  industry.’  Dell  has  not  yet 
made  it  to  number  one  in  the 
industry  but  the  company  is 
consistently  in  the  top  five. 

Michael  Dell  concedes  that  the 
concept  of  selling  direct  was  a  difficult 
one  to  get  across:  ‘One  ofthe  biggest 
barriers  to  selling  direct  was  that  many 
potential  customers  had  a  perfectly 
understandable  fear  of  shelling  out 
$4000  to  a  company  they’d  never  heard 
ofwithout  a  physical  store  to  walk  into.’ 
Dell  managed  to  solve  the  problem  by 
offering  a  30-day  money  back  guarantee. 

By  1 997  those  in  the  industry  such  as 
Apple,  IBM  and  Compaq,  which  had 
largely  dismissed  the  idea  of  selling 


direct,  performed  an 
about  turn  and  declared  that  they  would 
begin  direct  selling.  Of  course,  theirtask 
(and  Dell’s)  was  made  immeasurably 
easier  by  the  advent  ofthe  internet  and 
electronic  commerce. 

There  is  a  definite  element  of  self¬ 
publicity  about  Direct  from  Dell,  but  then, 
Michael  Dell  has  much  to  boast  about. 

Sean  Hallahan 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


273 


books 


HarnessingTechnology  for  Career  Success  -  From 
Online  CVto  Digital  Interview  — 


With  technology  increasingly  being 
about  relating  between  people 
ratherthan  machines,  it’s  time  to 
redefine  the  way  we  see  its  traditional 
usage.  Telephone  interviews,  screentests 
and  digital  interviews  are  all  a  part  of 
today’s  challenges  when  looking  for  that 
job.  This  book  provides  bare-essential, 
hard-to-find  advice  on  such  endeavours 
without  any  unnecessarily  confusing 
details.  Helen  Vandevelde  explores  the 
ways  i  n 
which 
technology 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★★★ 

Harnessing 
Technology  for 
Career  Success  -  From 
On-line  CVto  Digital 
Interview 

Author  Helen  Vandevelde 
Publisher  Trotman 
Publishing 

ISBN  0856604615 
Price  £8.99 


can  be  used, 
and  how  it 
has  become 
integral  to 
job-search 
skills  and 
recruitment 
strategies. 

Looking 
at  the 
changes  in 


the  value  of  our  skills  and  the  (in)security 
of  a  permanent  job,  Vandevelde 
considers  the  new  ways  in  which  we  are 
required  to  sell  ourselves  to  our 
prospective  employers.  When  it  comes  to 
CVs,  she  stresses  how  important  it  is  to 
understand  how  assessment  systems 
work,  and  how  you  must  tailor  your  CV 
accordingly.  As  much  ofthis 
communication  now  occurs  via  email, 
different  techniques  are  required. 
Additionally,  as  the  structure  of  an 
organisation  changes,  often  becoming 
global  in  its  workforce,  the  culture  of 
work  is  altered  and  is  less  centred  on  a 
permanent  base  -  another  reason  for 
getting  to  grips  with  email  etiquette. 

Also  covered  is,  of  course,  job 
searching  using  the  internet.  You’ll  find 
‘expert  witness’  accounts  throughout  the 
book,  telling  you  what  to  look  out  for 
and  giving  examples  of  do’s  and  don’ts. 
For  example,  the  benefits  ofworkingfora 
small  company  as  opposed  to  a  large 
corporation,  what  colours  to  wear  for  a 


video-conference 

interview,  and  other  considerations  that 
may  often  be  overlooked. 

An  inclusive  book,  informative  and 
well  structured,  HarnessingTechnology  is 
aimed  at  virtually  anyone  who  will  make 
up  the  workforce  in  201 0,  graduates  or 
non-graduates,  as  according  to 
Vandevelde,  by  this  time  95  percent  of  us 
will  be  working  with  technology.  Better 
start  reading... 

Helen  Fortgang 


Linux  in  Plain  English 


Although  Linux  in  Plain  English  claims 
to  be  useful  for  Linux  novices  and 
advanced  users  alike,  in  practice,  the 
book’s  title  is  misleading,  as  the 
newcomer  to  Linux  will  find  it  hard  to 
navigate  and  even  harder  to  understand. 
It  starts  with  a  brief  history  of  Linux  and  a 
basic  introduction  to  the  command-line 
interface,  which  would  give  the 
impression  that  the  novice  Linux  user  is 
likely  to  be  well-looked  after  in  later 
chapters.  However,  the  second  chapter, 
from  which  the  book  derives  its  title,  is 
not  as  useful  as  one  might  think. 

The  authors’  concept  of  using  ‘Plain 
English’  to 
point  users 
to  the 
relevant 
commands 
involves 


PCW  DETAILS 


★★ 

Linux  in  Plain  English 
Authors  Patrick 
Volkerding,  Kevin  Peichard, 
Eric  Foster-Johnson 
Publisher  MIS  Press 
ISBN  1558285423 
Price  £75.99 


using  two 
columns, 
one 

containing 

actions, 


the  other  containing 
the  relevant  Linux  commands,  which  can 
then  be  found  later  in  the  book.  So,  if 


you  want  to  ‘mount  a  disk’,  you  use  the 
command  ‘mount’.  This  is  all  very  well  if 
you  know  why  you  would  want  to  mount 
a  disk,  and  how  that  would  help  you,  but 


otherwise  not  very  plain  at  all.  A  glossary 
would  have  been  an  excellent  addition. 

Furthermore,  every  chapter  is  marked 
by  black  tabs  on  each  page  that  show  up 
on  the  edge  of  the  book,  allowing  you  to 
differentiate  between  chapters.  However, 
the  largest  section  of  the  book,  entitled 
‘Linux  commands  organised  by  Group’, 
is  marked  as  a  single  chapter,  even 
though  it  contains  eight  groups  and 
spans  over  500  pages.  This  makes  it  a  bit 
ofa  chore  to  look  up  commands  you 
want  to  reference. 

One  small  but  useful  section  covers 
direct  translations  (where  available) 
between  all  DOS  commands  and  their 
Linux  equivalents,  a  very  handy  reference 
for  DOS  users.  However,  another  small 
section  that  lists  all  common  Linux 
commands  is  a  complete  waste  of  space, 
as  it  simply  comprises  an  alphabetical  list 
of  commands  linked  to  the  relevant 
group  in  the  massive  500-page  chapter, 
which  provides  little  help  in  locating  an 
explanation. 

Barry  de  la  Rosa 


™  I  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


The  advent  of  digital  cinema  projection,  aka  eCinema,  looks  set  to  close  the  curtain  on  celluloid. 

The  digital  menace 


One  century  at  the  movies  has  seen  the 
advent  of  sound,  colour  and  multi¬ 
channel  digital  surround,  but  the  core 
technology  of  shining  light  through  film  has 
remained  essentially  unchanged.  But  in  an  ironic 
twist,  public  cinemas  are  about  to  embrace  a 
technology  used  in  those  very  home  theatres 
which  try  so  hard  to  emulate  the  big-screen 
experience.  Cinema  projection  is  about  to  go 
digital,  which  could  spell  curtains  for  celluloid. 

As  ever,  the  driving  force  is  not  the  push  for 
superior  quality,  but  a  financial  saving  for  the 
studios,  and  it's  not  hard  to  see  why  they're 
excited.  A  feature  film  resides  on  huge  1.5m 
diameter  reels  -  weighing  as  much  as  30kg  each 
and  costing  over  £1,000  to  duplicate.  If  you 
consider  that  a  major  movie  requires  up  to  5,000 
prints  to  satisfy  US  cinemas  alone,  you've  got  an 
expensive  duplication  and  distribution  job  on 
your  hands.  To  make  matters  worse,  film  prints 
quickly  become  plagued  by  dirt  and  scratches. 

Digital,  or  eCinema,  however,  could  mean 
electronic  movie  distribution  using  satellites  - 
eliminating  duplication  and  vehicular  transport 
costs,  as  well  as  greatly  reducing  physical  storage 
requirements.  Each  showing  would  look  the 
same,  without  image  deterioration.  Cinemas 
could  also  show  live  sporting  or  concert  events, 
or  juggle  which  movies  are  shown  right  up  to  the 
last  minute  according  to  demand.  The  only 
hurdle  has  been  the  development  of  a  digital 
projector  to  match  the  quality  of  35mm  film. 

The  SMPTE  (Society  of  Motion  Picture  and 
Television  Engineers)  publishes  guidelines  for 
cinema  print  projection  and  is  currently 
developing  guidelines  for  eCinema,  but  this 
hasn't  stopped  Hughes-JVC  and  Texas 
Instruments  (TI)  from  building  and 
demonstrating  their  own  systems. 

TI  is,  unsurprisingly,  advocating  its  Digital 
Light  Processing  (DLP)  and  Digital  Micromirror 
Device  (DMD)  technologies,  which  use  a  device 
not  unlike  a  disco  mirror  ball  to  reflect  light 
onto  the  screen  using  an  array  of  tiny  mirrors. 
TI's  proposed  DLP  cinema  projector  boasts 
13,000  lumens,  better  than  800:1  contrast  ratio, 
and  a  squarish  resolution  of  1,280  x  1,024  pixels, 
which  can  be  stretched  to  widescreen  using  1.5x 
and  1.9x  anamorphic  lenses,  just  like  today's 
film  systems.  In  fact  TI's  DMD  1210  chip 
measures  within  one  millimetre  of  a  frame 


from  an  anamorphic  release  print. 

Hughes-JVC  favours  its  Image  Light 
Amplifier  (ILA)  system,  which  employs  a  crystal 
light  valve  and  a  somewhat  conventional  CRT. 

Its  ILA-12K  projector  boasts  over  12,000  lumens 
light  output,  contrast  exceeding  1,000:1  and  a 
wide  aspect  resolution  of 2,000  x  1,280  pixels. 

But  who's  making  digital  films?  Until  digital 
cameras  are  employed  when  making  movies, 
studios  have  to  digitise  existing  film  in  Telecine 
suites.  Always  an  adopter  of  new  technology, 
George  Lucas  has  digitised  his  already  heavily 
computer-generated  Star  Wars  prequel,  The 
Phantom  Menace,  for  digital  trials  in  selected 
theatres.  On  the  18th  June  it  previewed  in  four 
cinemas  on  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  the 
United  States,  using  both  Hughes-JVC  and  TI 
technologies.  Lucas  also  plans  to  shoot  the  next 
two  Star  Wars  prequels  entirely  digitally. 

Hughes-JVC  appears  to  be  winning  the  race, 
at  least  in  terms  of  publicity.  CineComm  has 
announced  an  end-to-end  digital  cinema 
solution  employing  the  ILA  projector  and 
QualComm's  compression  and  encryption 
algorithms.  It's  already  been  seen  as  far  afield  as 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  rumour  has  it  that  the 
Odeon  Leicester  Square  is  fitting  one,  too. 

However,  questions  still  remain.  Is  the 
quality  as  good  as  film,  particularly  on  the  larger 
first-run  screens?  Who'll  pay  the  £100,000  plus 
for  the  projectors?  With  the  savings  on  offer, 
Hollywood  is  unlikely  to  care  about  quality,  and 
may  subsidise  or  even  foot  the  whole  bill.  We 
may  soon  never  see  another  film  at  the  cinema. 

Gordon  Laing 


IVILINMLL  nrtJ  MLVvLnU  I 

AIRED  IN  DIGITAL 
FORMAT  IN  SOME  US 
THEATRES 


•  June  1998  • 


Personal  Computer  World 


275 


Courtesy  of  Lucas  films  and  20th  Century  Fox 


The  thumbnail-sized  microdisplay  is  the  latest  exciting  development  in  monitor  technology. 

Seeing  is  believing 


After  much  anticipation,  the  microdisplay 
-  those  tiny  displays,  sometimes  called 
miniature  flatpanels  -  are  moving  from 
labs  into  real-world  products.  What  makes 
microdisplays  so  exciting  is  their  huge  potential. 

Microdisplays  present  product  designers 
with  a  chance  to  increase  the  displayed  image 
size  and  resolution,  yet  physically  shrink  the 
display  device  itself.  Their  physically-smaller  size 
means  products  will  be  less  bulky  and  heavy,  and 
will  run  longer  on  the  same  battery.  They  will  be 
used  mostly  in  mobile  phones,  headgear, 

cameras  and  pagers.  David  Mently,  a 
vice-president  at  Standford 

Resources,  one  of  the  industry's 
flatpanel  display  research 
companies,  said  there  are 
also  opportunities  for 
microdisplays  in  Tear- 
projection  monitors  for 
desktop  and  HDTV 
monitors  and 
ultracompact,  very-high- 
resolution  front  projectors.' 
According  to  research 
from  Microdisplay  Report, 
liquid-crystal-on-silicon  (LCOS) 
microdisplays  are  perhaps  the  hottest 
emerging  display  category.  More  than  a  dozen 
companies  will  soon  offer  LCOS  displays  in 
high-volume  quantities.  The  next  six  to  nine 
months  will  be  critical  for  this  industry. 
'Competition  will  be  fierce,  and  manufacturing 
issues  are  not  yet  ironed  out,'  said  Chris 
Chinnock,  editor  of  the  Microdisplay  Report. 

Included  in  the  competition  is  a  new 

Hewlett-Packard  partnership  with  Displaytech. 
The  two  companies  will  jointly  design,  make  and 
sell  the  company's  'reflective  microdisplay' 
components  for  consumer  electronic  products. 

According  to  HP,  the  microdisplays,  which 
are  smaller  than  a  fingernail,  pack  the  imaging 
capability  of  a  television  or  computer  monitor 
onto  a  silicon  chip  and  can  be  combined  with  an 
illumination  source  and/or  optics.  The  high- 
volume  component  products  will  be  sold  under 
the  combined  HP  and  Displaytech  brands. 

Displaytech's  microdisplay  technology, 
called  LightCaster,  actually  generates  an  image 
on  the  surface  of  a  thumbnail-sized  microchip. 


A  tiny,  LCD-like  panel  on  the  silicon  face  packs 
high-resolution  imagery  and  colour  into  a 
10.4mm  diagonal  image.  Display  manufacturers 
can  then  use  a  variety  of  optical  techniques  to 
enlarge  this  fingernail-sized,  crisp  image.  The 
company  said  the  technology  might  find  a  home 
in  full-sized,  high-definition  TV,  or  a  handheld 
computer  screen  that  might  be  seen  through  a 
viewing  lens.  In  either  case,  the  result  is  a  sharp, 
1,024  x  768  pixel  image  with  16.7  million 
colours. 

The  partnership  initially  will  focus  on  selling 
the  components  to  TV  and  projection  display 
manufacturers,  then  move  to  PDA  markets.  And 
further  down  the  road,  the  technology  might 
find  a  home  in  wearable  computing  devices  such 
as  head-mounted  computer  displays.  Headset 
maker,  Virtual  Vision,  recently  announced  the 
eGlass,  a  4-ounce  headset  with  a  lin3  monitor 
that  creates  a  full-colour,  full-motion  virtual 
image  of  between  16in  in  diagonal  at  a  distance 
of  2ft,  and  60in  at  6.6ft.  It  incorporates  a 
reflective  LCOS  display  from  Colorado 
MicroDisplay.  The  eGlass  will  target  low-volume 
industrial  and  medical  markets. 

A  Massachusetts-based  company^ 

MicroOptical,  plans  to  produce  portable 
displays  that  attach  to  ordinary  eyeglass  or 
safety  glasses.  The  company's  Integrated 
Eyeglass  Display  includes  a  concealed  electronic 
display.  When  the  user  wears  the  glasses  and 
turns  the  display  on,  an  image  of  a  video  or 
computer  screen  appears  at  a  distance  of  several 
feet.  A  focus  adjustment  allows  the  user  to  place 
the  image  at  a  comfortable  distance. 

'The  glasses  provide  the  user  with  a 
convenient,  portable  means  of  carrying  a  display 
that  may  be  connected  to  a  notebook  computer, 
wearable  computer  or  other  electronic  device,' 
said  Tom  Holzel,  vice-president  of  sales  and 
marketing  at  MicroOptical.  Applications  that 
seem  particularly  relevant,  Holzel  said,  include 
hands-free  reading  of  instrumentation  by 
technicians  and  telephone  linemen,  as  well  as 
infantry  infra-red  night-vision  use  in 
conventional  military  eyewear  such  as  goggles 
and  gas  masks.  In  addition,  various  medical  uses 
such  as  anesthesiologists  and  surgeons  watching 
their  patients,  are  also  prevalent. 

Barbara  Gengler 


276 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


HELPING  HAND 


PIRSONAL 


COMPUTER 

WORLD  Buyers  Charter 


MAIL  ORDER  PROTECTION  SCHEME  (MOPS) 

When  you  order  goods  as  ^private  individual  reader  from  a  UK  supplier’s  advertisement  in 
Personal  Computer  World  and  pay  by  post  in  advance  of  delivery  to  that  Mail  Order  Advertiser, 
which  subsequently  ceases  to  trade  and  goes  into  Liquidation  or  Bankruptcy  prior  to  delivery 
of  such  goods,  you  may,  under  the ‘Buyers  Charter’,  qualify  for  compensation,  providing: 

1 .  You  have  not  received  the  goods  or  had  your  money  returned. 

2.  You  have  followed  the  Personal  Computer  World  guidelines  when  placingyourorder  (see  over). 

3.  You  have  taken  all  reasonable  steps  to  effect  delivery  or  refund. 

4.  You  have  retained  irrefutable  proof  of  purchase,  for  verification  purposes: 

a)  A  copy  of  the  original  advertisement  from  which  the  goods  were  ordered. 

b)  Comprehensive  proof  of  payment. 

GUIDELINES 

Claims  must  be  submitted  so  as  to  arrive  ‘NOT  EARLIERTHAN  TWENTY-EIGHT  DAYS  AND 
NOT  LATERTHAN  THREE  MONTHS’  from  the  official  on-sale  date  of  the  magazine.  Claims 
must  be  submitted  to  the  Customer  Services  Manager  IN  WRITING,  summarising  the  situation 
and  lodged  strictly  within  the  time  schedule  stated.  Claims  received  outside  this  period  will  not  qualify 
for  consideration  for  compensation  under  the  ‘ Buyers  Charter ’. 

Once  a  supplier  who  has  advertised  in  this  magazine  has  become  subject  to  either  Liquidation 
or  Bankruptcy  proceedings  and  upon  completion  of  all  winding-up  procedures,  Personal 
Computer  World  guarantees  to  expeditiously  process  those  private  individual  readers’  claims 
made  and  submitted,  in  accordance  with  those  procedures  outlined,  up  to  the  following 
limits. 

a)  £2,000  in  respect  of  any  claim  submitted  by  one  Private  Individual  Reader. 

b)  £1 00,000  in  respect  of  all  advertisers  so  affected  in  any  one  year. 

These  sums  define  the  Publisher’s  maximum  liability  under  the  scheme,  and  any  additional 
payments  above  and  beyond  these  thresholds  will  be  entirely  at  the  Publisher’s  discretion. 

As  soon  as  legal  confirmation  that  a  state  of  liquidation  or  bankruptcy  exists,  the  processing  of 
claims  will  immediately  commence.  If,  however,  assets  are  available  and  the  receiver/liquidator 
appointed  confirms  that  an  eventual  payment  will  be  made  by  way  of  a  dividend,  all  claims 
under  the  ‘Buyers  Charter’  will  be  subject  to  re-processing  and  will  take  into  account  any 
shortfall  which  may  then  exist.  Payments  under  the  scheme  will  also  take  into  consideration 
the  obligations  and  liabilities  of  other  interested  parties,  such  as  credit  card  and/or  insurance 
organisations  etc. 

EXCEPTIONS 

This  guarantee  only  applies  to  advance  postal  payments  made  by  private  individuals  in  direct  response 
for  goods  itemised/illustrated  in  display  advertisements .  It  does  not  cover  goods  ordered  from 
advertising  Inserts  or  Cards,  classified  advertisements  or  MicroMart,  or  Catalogues  obtained 
from,  or  supplied  by,  any  advertiser  regardless.  Similarly ,  protection  does  not  exist  in  relation  to 
purchases  made  as  a  result  of  reviews  and/or  editorial  comment. 

The  ‘Buyers  Charter’  is  designed  to  safeguard  the  PRIVATE  individual  reader.  It  does  not  provide 
protection  to  any  companies,  societies,  organisations,  unincorporated  bodies  or  any  other 
commercially  orientated  outlet  of  any  description.  Neither  is  cover  provided  for  orders  placed 
from,  or  to,  any  overseas  suppliers  or  for  goods  purchased  for  resale. 

CAVEAT  EMPTOR 

Readers  are  reminded  that  the  Mail  Order  Protection  Scheme  was  solely  implemented  to 
provide  protection  to  the  private  individual  when  goods  are  ordered  ‘Off  the  Page’  and 
paid  for  by  post.  It  was  not  designed  for,  nor  will  it  offer  any  protection ,  in  the  event  whereby 
goods  are  purchased  via  the  Internet. 

CREDIT  CARD  PROTECTION 

Always  pay  by  credit  card  when  ordering  goods  valued  in  excess  of  £100,  thereby  ensuring  maximum 
protection  in  the  event  that  an  advertiser  ceases  to  trade  prior  to  such  goods  actually  being  received. 

DISCLAIMERS 

Readers  are  reminded  that  the  opinions  expressed,  and  the  results  published  in  connection  with 
reviews  and/or  laboratory  test  reports  carried  out  on  computing  systems  and/or  related  items,  are 
confined  to,  and  are  representative  of,  only  those  goods  as  supplied  and  should  not  be  construed  as  a 
recommendation  to  purchase.  Whilst  every  precaution  is  taken  to  ensure  that  reliability  and  good 
business  practices  prevail,  the  Publisher  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  overall  trading  activities 
of  any  supplier  referred  to,  or  advertising  within,  this  publication. 


Each  month  Anthony  George,  our 
customer  services  manager,  will 
give  advice  on  what  to  watch  out 
for  when  buying  computer 
equipment  off-the-page. 


Consumer  credit  agreements,  including 
the  issuing  of  a  credit  card  and  interest 
free  credit  in  a  shop,  often  affect  PC 
buyers.  But  what  should  you  look  out  for? 

Credit  and  hire  businesses  are  regulated 
under  the  Consumer  Credit  Act  1974.  Sources  of 
credit,  from  banks  to  mail-order  companies, 
must  be  licensed  every  five  years  by  the 
director  general  of  Fair  Trading,  and  listed 
on  the  consumer  credit  register. 

The  register  is  open  to  public  view  and  basic 
information  contained  in  it  can  be  obtained  free 
of  charge.  By  paying  a  fee,  you  can  also  find  out 
which  licences  or  applications  the  director 
general  is  considering  revoking  or  refusing. 

Most  consumer  credit  agreements,  where  the 
amount  of  credit  does  not  exceed  £1 5,000,  are 
regulated  by  the  Act.  Prospective  borrowers 
must  be  given  written  information  allowing 
them  to  make  informed  choices,  and  although 
such  agreements  are  offered  and  administered 
by  the  lender  or  supplier,  they  are  designed  to 
protect  the  borrower. 

■v-  What  an  agreement  must  tell  you 

The  agreement  document  must  specify  clearly 
in  writing  the  terms  for  the  repayment  of  the 
credit,  which  are  then  fixed  for  the  period  over 
which  you  repay.  They  must  include:  the  total 
amount  borrowed,  credit  limit,  the  total  cost  to 
the  borrower  including  interest  and  any  other 
additional  charges,  the  true  yearly  rate  of 
interest  (APR),  at  which  stage  you  may  cancel 
the  agreement,  clearly  show  your  rights  and 
duties  as  a  borrower,  the  lender’s  name  and 
address,  the  number  of  monthly  repayments 
and  first  repayment  date,  details  of  the 
goods/services  provided,  together  with  the  cash 
price,  a  note  of  any  deposit  paid,  and  any 
special  terms  that  the  law  does  not  consider  to 
be  ‘implied  terms’  of  the  contract.  For  example, 
the  fact  that  any  goods  supplied  under  the 
agreement  must  be  of  satisfactory  quality  is  an 
implied  term  of  the  contract,  but  the  fact  that 
goods  may  be  supplied  by  instalments  is  not. 

The  document  must  state  that  the  borrower 
has  rights  under  the  Consumer  Credit  Act,  and 
explain  what  right  the  borrower  has  to  cancel 
the  agreement.  It  must  also  give  details  of  the 
lender’s  rights,  including  a  summary  of  how  the 
lender  will  treat  late  payment,  early  repayment 
and  default.  If  any  of  this  information  is  missing, 
the  lender  cannot  enforce  the  agreement  unless 
and  until  a  court  order  is  obtained. 

Anthony  George,  Customer  Relations  Department, 
VNU  Business  Publications,  VNU  Flouse, 

32-34  Broadwick  Street,  London  W1 A  2FIG 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


285 


order  form 


Use  this  form  when  you  order  by  phone,  fax  or  post. 


PERSONAL 

COMPUTER 

WORLD 


SUPPLIER’S  DETAILS 

COMPANY  . 

SALESPERSON’S  NAME  . 
ADDRESS  . 


CUSTOMER  DETAILS 

NAME . 

COMPANY  . 

ADDRESS  . 


POSTCODE 


POSTCODE 


DATE  OFTELEPHONE  ORDER  . / . / . TIME 


ORDER  REFERENCE  NUMBER  (IF  QUOTED) 
DESPATCH  REFERENCE  NUMBER  . 


DATE  OFTELEPHONE  ORDER 

□ 


ORDERED  BY: 


. / . /• 

TELEPHONE  □  FAX 


□ 


POST 


ADVERT  APPEARED  IN  PCW: 

ISSUE  DATE .  PAGE  . 


QUANTITY 


DETAILS  OF  ORDER 


UNIT  COST  £ 


TOTAL  £ 


METHOD  OF  PAYMENT 


SUB-TOTAL 


I  \  PERSONAL  CHEQUE  Q  PURCHASE  ORDER  Q  CREDIT  CARD 
Q  C.O.D  Q  DEBIT  CARD  □  OTHER  (SPECIFY) . 

CARD  COMPANY  . 

ISSUE  NUMBER  (debit  cards  only) . 

START  DATE  . / . / . EXPIRY  DATE  . / . / 

CARD  NUMBER . / . / . / . 


DISCOUNT 

CARRIAGE 

SURCHARGES 

VAT 

TOTAL 


SIGNED . 

DATE . / . / . 

DAYTIME  TELEPHONE  NUMBER . 


DELIVERY  ADDRESS 


AGREED  DELIVERY  DATE 


.  POSTCODE 

•/ . / . 


Purchasing  Guidelines 


There  are  several  steps  you  can  take  to 
help  ensure  that  the  buying  process  is 
smooth  and  trouble  free.  We’d  like  to 
suggest  these  main  guidelines: 

•  KEEP  RECORDS 

When  you  phone  a  supplier,  make  a  note  of 
the  name  of  the  person  you  speak  to,  and  when. 
Note  down  any  claims  they  make  for  the  product  in 
which  you  are  interested,  or  any  specifications  they 
mention.  If  you  are  unsure  that  what  they 
are  offering  is  right  for  the  task,  then  ask. 

•  GET  A  FULL  SPEC  OF  THE  MACHINE 
Before  you  place  an  order  for  a  machine, 
insist  on  being  faxed  or  emailed  a  full 
specification,  detailing  all  components  and 
peripherals.  Check  what  is  included:  for  example, 


when  buying  a  printer,  are  all  cables  and 
cartridges  bundled  in?  If  you’ve  used  a  review 
in  a  magazine  to  guide  your  decision,  make  sure 
that  what  is  quoted  matches  what  you  have  read. 
Sometimes,  machine  specifications  can  change 
from  the  model  sent  for  review. 

•  BE  CLEAR  ABOUT  SUPPORT  AND 
WARRANTIES 

Make  sure  that  you  get  a  warranty  which 
suits  your  needs  and  is  fully  detailed  in  the 
quotation.  If  you  need  swift  repairs,  consider 
paying  extra  for  an  eight-hour  repair  service. 

Also  make  sure  you  understand  the  level  of 
service  you  can  expect  to  receive,  including  who 
pays  for  couriers  if  your  machine  has  to  be 
returned  for  repair. 


•  USE  CREDIT  CARD  PROTECTION 
When  you  place  your  order,  use  a  credit  card. 
The  Consumer  Credit  Act  ensures  that  credit  card 
purchases  between  £100  and  £30,000  are  covered. 
Check  the  address  to  which  the  goods  will  be  sent. 
Often,  if  you  buy  with  a  credit  card  you  can  only 
receive  the  goods  at  the  address  on  the  card.  If  you 
are  buying  over  the  Internet,  make  sure  you  are 
using  a  secure  server,  sometimes  denoted  by  the 
prefix  ‘https’. 

•  SET  DELIVERY  DATE  AND  CHECK 
WHAT’S  DELIVERED 

This  gives  you  some  comeback  if  the  goods 
are  not  delivered  on  time.  When  the  goods  arrive, 
check  the  packaging  before  you  sign  for  them, 
to  guard  against  damage  in  transit. 


286 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Directory  of  Product  Suppliers 


PC  SYSTEMS 

PC  Desktops 

A  Class  UK 

143 

Blue  Ridge  Computers 

170-171 

Carrera 

149 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Compaq 

100-101 

Compute  IT 

99 

Dabs  Direct 

249,317- 

348 

Dan  Technology 

19-22, 

277-280 

Dell  Computer  Corp 

5,  41  -47,  94- 
95,  146-147. 
244-245 

Elonex 

33,50-51 

Hi-Grade  Computers  Ltd 

156-159 

Leonardo  Computer 

211 

MESH  Computers  pic 

10,53-55, 

169 

Micro  Direct 

290-291 

Panrix  Electronix 

161-163 

Prate  k 

17 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Time  Computer  Systems 

105-109, 

178-179 

Tiny  Computers 

185-188 

Viglen 

PC  Notebooks 

obc 

AJP 

152-153 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Compaq 

100-101 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Fujitsu 

8-9 

Gateway  2000 

68-69 

Hi-Grade  Computers  Ltd 

156-159 

Lapland 

286-287 

Page  One 

219 

Rock  Computers 

37,520 

mm  mm 


Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Time  Computer  Systems 

105-109, 

178-179 

Viglen 

PC  handhelds 

obc 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

PC  Multimedia 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Dabs  Direct 

249,317- 

348 

Dan  Technology 

19-22, 

277-280 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Time  Computer  Systems 

105-109, 

178-179 

Components 

Monitors 

ADI  Systems  (UK)  Ltd 

83 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Hansol 

135 

liyama 

49 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Taxan  (UK)  Ltd 

113 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Viglen 

Input  Devices 

obc 

Electrone  Ltd 

533 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

PCMCIA 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Floppy  Drives 

Dabs  Direct 

249,317- 

348 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Onstream 

119 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Viglen 

obc 

Westlakes 

282 

Hard  drives 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Inet  Data 

80-81 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Westlakes 

282 

Optical  Storage 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Westlakes 

282 

CD  Rom 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Plextor 

59 

Ski  Direct 

211 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

SEE  THE  MICROMART  PRODUCT  LOCATOR  ON  PAGE  505 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


519 


Directory  of  Product  Suppliers 


JM1 


Viglen 

obc 

Westlakes 

282 

Yamaha 

102 

Data  backup 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Powerquest 

100 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Viglen 

obc 

Westlakes 

282 

Memory 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Crucial  Technology 

76 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Richnight 

281 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Motherboards 

ASUS 

121 

Choice  Systems 

283 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Multimedia  upgrades 

Blue  Ridge  Computers 

170-171 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Matrox 

78 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Time  Computer  Systems 

Viglen 

Graphics  Cards 

105-109, 

178-179 

obc 

ATI 

97 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Guillemot 

137 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Taxan  (UK)  Ltd 

113 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

Sound  Cards 

349-371 

Choice  Systems 

283 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Techworks 

Upgrades 

175 

Choice  Systems 

283 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Time  Computer  Systems 

105-109, 

178-179 

Viglen 

Accounting 

obc 

Corel 

89,  132 

Hong  Software 

211 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Tech  Direct 

519” 

CAD 

372-387, 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Tech  Direct 

Technomatic 

Database 

372-387, 

519 

349-371 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

Edutainment 

63,65, 

389-472 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Technomatic 

Business  Software 

349-371 

Corel 

89,  132 

Digital  Workshop 

69 

Paragon  Software 

518 

Simply  Computers 

528-529 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

Games 

349-371 

Technomatic 

349-371 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

Multimedia 

63,65, 

389-472 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

Music 

349-371 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

SEE  THE  MICROMART  PRODUCT  LOCATOR  ON  PAGE505 


5201 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Directory  of  Product  Suppliers 


[company 

PAGE  N° 

Technomatic 

Project  management 

349-371 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Technomatic 

Security 

349-371 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

63,  65, 
389-472 

Technomatic 

Spreadsheets 

349-371 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Technomatic 

Utilities 

349-371 

Digital  Workshop 

69 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

Anti  Virus 

349-371 

Forefront 

85 

Softl  ocx 

117 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Tech  Direct 

Networking 

372-387, 

519 

Cambridge  ISDN 

181 

Dakota  Computer 

164 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

63,  65, 
389-472 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Operating  Systems 

Grey  Matter 

259 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Technomatic 

Shareware 

349-371 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Unix 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

OS/2 

Software  Warehouse 

63,65, 

389-472 

Peripherals 

Printers 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Fujitsu 

8-9 

Hewlett-Packard 

24 

KGB 

29-31 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Time  Computer  Systems 

105-109, 

178-179 

Viglen 

obc 

West  lakes 

282 

Scanners 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

Devcom 

200-201 

Expansys 

13 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

S55P 


Bar  code  systems 

SMC  Computers 

Modems 

473-504 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Dabs  Direct 

249, 

317-348 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Technomatic 

349-371 

West  lakes 

Network  hardware 

282 

Cambridge  ISDN 

181 

Dakota  Computer  Solutions 

,  164 

SEG 

196 

SMC  Computers 

473-504 

Technomatic 

349-371 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

Viglen 

Digital  Cameras 

obc 

Tech  Direct 

372-387, 

519 

West  lakes 

Services 

282 

Choice  Systems 

283 

Unitech 

196 

W2FM 

Ink  Refills 

288-289 

West  lakes 

Internet  Service  Providers 

282 

Claranet 

35 

Global  Internet 

61 

FNN 

Training 

57 

Cartridge  Club  (UK) 

Consumables 

211 

West  lakes 

Multi-function  Machines 

282 

West  lakes 

282 

SEE  THE  MICROMART  PRODUCT  LOCATOR  ON  PAGE  505 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


521 


Index  of  advertisers 


ADVERTISER  TELEPHONE  PAGE 


►  * 


A  Class  UK 

0181  324  1699 

143 

ADI  Systems  (UK) 

0181  236  0801 

83 

AJP 

0181  208  9755 

152-153 

ASUS 

see  advert 

121 

ATI 

see  advert 

97 

Blue  Ridge  Computers 

01430  430222 

170-171 

Budget  Workstations 

0181  871  4322 

167,  521 

►  c 


Cambridge  ISDN 

01223  495929 

181 

Carrera 

0181  307  2900 

149 

Cartridge  Club  (UK) 

see  advert 

211 

Choice  Systems 

0181  993  9003 

283 

Claranet 

0800  072  0723 

35 

Compaq* 

0990  232425 

100-101 

Compute  IT 

01723  723973 

99 

Corel 

0800  581028 

89,  132 

Crucial  Technology 

0800  013  0330 

76 

►  D| 


Dabs  Direct 

0800  674467 

249 

Dakota  Computer  Corp 

0181  452  8400 

164 

Dan  Technology 

0181  830  1100 

19-22,  277-280 

Dell  Computer 

01344  724872 

5,  41  -47,  94-95, 
146-147,  244-245 

Devcom 

01324  825999 

200-201 

Digital  Workshop 

01295  258335 

69 

►  E 


Electrone  Ltd 

01494  511999 

533 

Elonex 

0500  524444 

33,50-51,91 

Expansys 

0870  6010141 

13 

FNN 

0800  376  6910 

57 

Forefront 

see  advert 

85 

Fujitsu 

01364  654100 

8-9 

►  G 


Gateway  2000  Europe 

0800  172000 

68-69 

Global  Internet 

0181  957  1022 

61 

Grey  Matter 

01364  654100 

259 

Guillemot 

0181  944  9300 

137 

Hansol 

01276  418213 

135 

Hewlett-Packard 

0990  474747 

24 

Hi-Grade 

0181  532  6123 

156-159 

Hong  Software 

0171  731  7888 

211 

*  Inserted  cards ,  catalogues,  pre-printed  adverts  and  sections 


EbEPHONE  PAGE 


Inet  Data 

01372  470777 

80-81 

liyama 

see  advert 

49 

KGB 

see  advert 

29,31 

Lapland 

01256  867  700 

286-287 

Leonardo 

01734  753477 

211 

Matrox 

01753  665544 

78 

MESH 

0181  452  1111 

10,  53-55,169 

Micro  Direct 

0161  248  4848 

290-291 

►  o 

Onstream 

0800  328  1204 

119 

►  p 

Page  One 

0500  505  505 

219 

Paragon 

see  advert 

518 

Panrix 

0113  244  4958 

161-163 

Plextor 

0032  272  55522 

59 

Powerquest 

01202  716726 

100 

Protek 

0500  127498 

17 

►  R 

Richnight 

0800  318298 

281 

Rock  Computers 

see  advert 

37,  520 

►  s 

SEG 

0181  953  3377 

196 

Simply  Computers 

0181  523  4002 

528-529 

Ski  Direct 

see  advert 

211 

Softlocx 

0115959  8181 

117 

Software  Warehouse 

01675  466467 

63,65 

Taxan  (UK) 

01344  484646 

113 

Tech  Direct 

0181  286  2222 

519 

Tech  works 

01753  898500 

175 

Time  Computer 

01282  777111 

105-109,178-179 

Tiny  Computers 

01293  821333 

185-188 

▼ 

Unitech 

001  949  753  1511 

196 

Viglen  Computer 

0181  758  7080 

obc 

W2FM 

0808  100  8200 

288-289 

West  lakes 

0181  902  2392 

282 

Yamaha 

01908  366700 

102 

522 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Index  for  Direct  Buyers’  World 

The  place  in  PCW where  you  can  compare  prices  on  a  wide  range  of  hardware 
and  software.  The  card  insert  at  page  276  marks  the  start  of  the  section. 


ADVERTISER  TE1-EPHONE 

PAGE 

Dan  Technology 

0113  259  1200 

277- 

280 

Richnight 

0800  318298 

281 

Westlakes 

0808  100  8200 

282 

Choice  Systems 

0181  993  9003 

283 

Lapland 

01256  867  700 

286-287 

W2FM 

0118  973  0855 

288-289 

ADVERTISER  TfHjEPHONE 

PAGE 

Micro  Direct 

0161  248  4848 

290-291 

Dabs  Direct 

0800  674467 

317-348 

Technomatic  Ltd 

0990  559944 

349-371 

Tech  Direct 

0181  286  2222 

372-387 

SMC  Computers 

01753  550333 

473-504 

Software  Warehouse 

01675  466467 

389-472 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


1523. 


pew  reviews 


Faxback  Service 

Missed  a  feature  or  a  review? 
Try  our  24-hour  faxback  service. 

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Faxback  Table 

IpCs  and  Notebooks 

Issue 

Pages 

Code 

Pentium  III  PCs 

April-99 

5 

2009 

400MHz  Celeron  PCs  group  test 

May-99 

11 

2010 

Pll  vs  Pill  PCs 

June-99 

13 

2011 

K6-III  PCs 

July-99 

11 

2012 

Budget  PCs 

September-99 

11 

2013 

Notebooks 

September-99 

8 

2014 

Pentium  III  550MHz  PCs 

August-99 

11 

2015 

[hardware  Group  Tests 

Issue 

Pages 

Code 

Budget  flatbed  scanners 

September-98 

9 

2107 

Digital  video 

January-99 

13 

2111 

Laser  printers 

February-99 

12 

2112 

Colour  inkjets 

February-99 

8 

2113 

Monitors  (1 7in,  1 9in  and  flatpanels) 

April-99 

11 

2115 

Digital  cameras 

May-99 

9 

2116 

Motherboards 

May-99 

14 

2117 

Removable  storage 

June-99 

6 

2118 

3D  graphics  cards 

June-99 

6 

2119 

PDAs  and  handhelds 

July-99 

10 

2120 

Communications  hardware 

August-99 

11 

2121 

PCW  Faxback  number:  09065  600632 


1 m 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


Faxback  Table  (cont’d) 


Software  Group  Tests 

Issue 

Pages 

Code 

Accounting  and  personal  finance 

June-98 

11 

2205 

Utilities 

September-98 

8 

2208 

Speech  recognition 

October-98 

5 

2209 

Databases 

November-98 

10 

2211 

Communications 

December-98 

10 

2212 

Image  editing  (budget) 

January-99 

11 

2213 

Image  editing  (high  end) 

February-99 

8 

2214 

Web-authoring  tools 

March -9  9 

12 

2215 

|ava  and  visual  programming  tools 

April-99 

8 

2216 

Desktop  publishing 

June-99 

8 

2217 

Operating  systems 

July-99 

12 

2218 

Drawing  software  (illustrative  and  technical) 

September-99 

10 

2219 

Contact  Managers 

August-99 

7 

2220 

Hands  On  Workshops 

Issue 

Pages 

Code 

Client/server  databases  part  1 

April-98 

3 

2305 

Client/server  databases  part  2 

May-98 

3 

2306 

Client/server  databases  part  3 

June-98 

4 

2307 

Client/server  databases  part  4 

July-98 

4 

2308 

Client/server  databases  part  5 

August-98 

4 

2309 

Linux  part  1 

January-99 

3 

2313 

Linux  part  2 

February-99 

3 

2314 

Linux  part  3 

March-99 

3 

2315 

Website  construction  part  1 

March-99 

3 

2316 

Website  construction  part  2 

May-99 

3 

2320 

Website  construction  part  3 

June-99 

3 

2322 

JavaScript 

April  99 

3 

2317 

Remote  access 

April-99 

3 

2318 

Year  2000  solutions  part  1  -  hardware 

April-99 

1 

2319 

Year  2000  solutions  part  2  -  Windows 

May-99 

1 

2321 

Multiple  boot 

July-99 

2 

2323 

Caligari 

September-99 

3 

2324 

Small  Business  Workshops 

Issue 

Pages 

Code 

Building  a  small  network 

September-98 

5 

2402 

Ecommerce  for  small  business 

October-98 

5 

2403 

Building  your  own  web  server 

November-98 

6 

2404 

Hubs  and  network  starter  kits 

February-99 

4 

2407 

Firewalls  and  net  protection 

March-99 

3 

2408 

IT  training  for  your  small  business 

April-99 

4 

2409 

Backup  solutions  for  your  small  business 

May-99 

4 

2410 

Encryption  forecommerce 

June-99 

3 

2411 

Building  a  five-user  network 

September-99 

5 

2412 

General  Features 

Issue 

Pages 

Code 

PCW  Service  &  Reliability  Survey 

October-98 

12 

2513 

Office  2000 

June-99 

5 

2519 

Anti-virus 

August-99 

5 

2521 

Memory 

August-99 

2 

2522 

PCW  Faxback  number:  09065  600632 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


1525 


w 


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Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


527 


crossword/ bra  inteasers 


ir  Quickie 

One  transport  lorry  overtakes  another 
on  the  motorway,  taking  twice  as  long 
to  pass  it  as  it  would  have  done  had  the 
two  lorries  been  travelling  in  opposite 
directions.  How  many  times  faster  than 
the  second  lorry  is  the  first  lorry 
travelling? 

iv~  This  Month’s  Prize  Puzzle 

To  choose  the  winners  for  Prize  Puzzles 
where  there  is  more  than  one  correct 
solution  (usually  every  month)  I  use  a 
random  number  generator  which  will 
come  up  with  a  random  number 
between  any  limits  that  I  give  it. 

If  I  use  it  to  generate  an  integer  in  the 
range  one  to  1 00  million  inclusive,  what 
is  the  probability  that  the  number 
produced  will  have  a  digital  sum  of 
exactly  49  -  ie  a  number  whose  digits  add 
up  to  49? 

Exact  answers  only  please,  on  a 
postcard  or  the  back  of  a  sealed 
envelope,  to:  PCW  Prize  Puzzle  -  October 
1 999,  PO  Box  99,  Harrogate,  N.  Yorks 


HG2  OXJ,  to  arrive  not  later  than  20th 
October  1 999. 

We  will  also  accept  solutions  by 
email.  Send  the  solution  and  your  name 
and  address  only  (no  explanatory  notes 
or  program  listings,  etc)  to: 

jj.clessa@btinternet.com 

Winner  of  July  1999  Prize  Puzzle 

A  fairly  easy  puzzle  that  could  be  solved 
(and  was,  by  most  entrants)  by  analytical 
methods.  The  size  of  the  entry  bag  - 
almost  1 60  -  showed  how  simple  it 
actually  was.  The  winning  entry  came 
from  Mr  Richard  Jones  of  Reigate, 

Surrey.  The  answer  was  that  one  lady 
bought  1 3,  the  other  lady  bought  four. 
However,  there  was  no  way  to  find  out 
which  lady  bought  what. 
Congratulations,  Richard,  your  prize  is 
winging  its  way  to  you. 

ir  May  the  answer  be  with  you 

Remember  the  May  puzzle,  the  one 
about  English,  Science  and  Maths 
books?  Several  of  our  readers  have 


informed  me  that  they  could  not 
understand  how  the  solution  was 
obtained.  Unfortunately,  I  am  unable  to 
publish  the  solution  here  for  reasons  of 
space,  but  if  anyone  would  like  to  have  it, 

I  will  send  it  to  them,  either  by  sae  or  by 
email,  if  they  contact  me. 

•  If  you  send  an  email  entry ,  remember  to 
include  an  address  to  where  the  prize  can  be 
sentshouldyou  be  a  winner. 

•  By  the  way ,  have  you  applied  for  the  latest 
Clessa  Quickie  books  at  the  reduced  price  of 
£ 2.25  each?  Quite  a  few  of  you  have  already. 
For  further  information,  you  can  write  or  email 
me  at  the  puzzle  entry  address ,  or  you  can  visit 
the  new jj  Clessa  website  at  http://dspace. 
dial.pipex.com/jj.clessa.  It  contains,  among 
other  things,  answers  to  earlier  Quickies,  a 

d iff  cult  puzzle  (but  not  the  PCW  kind,  ie  the 
kind  that  can  be  solved  by  whirringcomputers), 
hopefully  a  few  readers'  comments,  a  bit  of  this 
and  that  —  and,  of  course,  a  plug  for  the  latest 
Clessa  Quickie  books! 

JJ  Clessa 


ACROSS 

7  Free  version  of  Unix  (5) 

8  Part  of  a  34  across  (4) 

9  See  30  across 

11  Division  of  a  disk  (6) 

12  Microsoft’s  Internet 
software  (8) 

13  Advanced  Internet 
programming  language  (4) 


1 5  Software  glitch  (3) 

16  Time  to  reboot  (5) 

19  Visuals  input  device  (7) 

20  Existing  setting  unless 
another  has  been  stated  (7) 
23  Screen  dot  (5) 

25  1 9  across’s  text 
capability  (inits)  (3) 

26  Electronic  input/ 


output  point  (4) 

28  Rival  of  1 2  across’s 
company  (8) 

30  and  9  across 
Peripherals  plug-in  point 
(6,4) 

32  Shock _ allows  for 

fun  Internet  action  (4) 

33  Access  point  for 
inserting  disks  (4) 

34  Grid-like  visual  (5) 

DOWN 

1  Citrus  fruit  (4) 

2  Four-line  poem  (8) 

3  Retaliation  (7) 

4  Gradient  (5) 

5  Outcry  (6) 

6  French  cheese  (4) 

10  Boy  singers  (7) 

14  Character  code 
(abbrev)  (5) 

17  Divide  (5) 

18  Sadden (7) 

21  North  African  (8) 

22  One  way  or  another  (7) 
24  Spring  festival  (6) 

27  Error  (5) 

29  Test  (4) 

31  Competently  (4) 


Each  month,  one  lucky  PCW  Crossword 
entrant  wins  a  copy  of  the  new 
Chambers  Dictionary. 

The  winner  of  Augusts  puzzle  is: 

Mr  D  W  Wyeth,  of  Bodicote,  Oxon. 
This  time,  it  could  be  you.  Send  your 
completed  crossword  to: 

‘PCW  September  -  Prize  Crossword’, 
VNU  House,  32-34  Broadwick  Street, 
London  W1 A  2HG,  to  arrive  not  later 
than  31  st  August,  1 999. 

•  Please  state  clearly  on  your  entry  if  you  do  not 
wish  to  receive  promotional  material  from  other 
companies. 

Solutions  to  August’s 
crossword 

ACROSS 

7  Internet  9  Analog  1 0  Disk  1 1  Character 
1 2  Buses  1 4  Scanner  1 8  Start  Up 
19  Lithium  22  Refresh  24  Email 

26  Intranets  28  Tray  29  Laptop 
30  Provider 

DOWN 

1  Antiquity  2  Seek  3  Knock  4  Gala 
5  Battle  6  Soar  8  Trance  1 3  Ear 
15  Nail  16  Agar  17  Mutilated  20  Hum 
21  Asleep  23  Estate  25  Ascot  26  Iraq 

27  Amps  28  Tail 


5M 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


competitions 


Win  Millennium  BugBuster 


Xplorys  is  giving  30  PCW readers 
the  opportunity  to  win  a  copy  of 
its  Millennium  BugBuster,  worth 
£34.99  each.  Millennium  BugBuster,  a 
software  program  that  fixes  hardware 
date  mechanisms  to  be  compliant  for 
use  in  and  after  the  year  2000,  is  a 
tailored  version  of  an  existing  software 
engine  that  is  currently  in  use  by  large 
multinationals,  banks  and  governments. 
The  software  has  been  altered  to 
perform  on  a  professional  but  simple 
level  for  the  average  PC  user.  The 
BugBuster  simply  scans  all  hardware 
date  mechanisms  ofthe  PC  on  BIOS/ 
CMOS/Operating  System  levels,  tests  for 
leap  year  problems  and  determines 
buffered  and  unbuffered  RTC.  Whenever 
the  test  results  of  these  scans  show  a 
failure  on  year  2000  compliance,  the 
Millennium  BugBuster  will  fix  these 
hardware  problems  -  without  you  having 
to  do  anything. 


Features  include: 

•  Guaranteed 
hardware 
compliance 

against  all  known 
millennium 
problems. 

•  Software  that  is 
completely 
accessible  in 
English, 

Dutch, 

German  and 
French. 

•  User- 
friendly 
software  that 
can  be  easily 
installed  by 
non-experienced 
computer  users. 

•  Ability  to  test  an  unlimited  number  of 
PCs  foryear  2000  compliance. 


•  Software  advisor  and  a 

millennium  countdown  clock 
•  Millennium  BugBuster  is 

able  to  fix  the  PC  hardware 
on  CMOS  level,  a  skill  most 
other  products  do  not  have. 


For  more  information  on  the 
Millennium  Bug  Buster  from 
Xplorys,  call  the  free  phone 
number  on  0800  634  4242. 


«*~To  enter  this 


competition,  simply 
answer  the  following  question: 

What  skill  does  Xplorys ’  Millennium 
BugBuster  have,  that  most  other  year 2000 
products  do  not? 


Win  3D  glasses  /  Graphics  card 


This  month  we  are  giving  five  PCW 
readers  the  chance  to  win  ELSA 
3D  Glasses  and  Graphics  Card 
Bundles,  worth  £1 79.99  each. 

ELSA,  a  German  graphics  card 
vendor  has  combined  its  3D  Revelator 
Glasses  with  the  RIVATNT-based 
ERAZOR  II,  to  create  a  product  that 
gives  PC  gamers  an  absorbing  3D 
experience  on  a  normal  PC  screen. 

The  3D  glasses  connect  to  the 
ERAZOR  II  card  and  create  the  3D  effect 
by  alternatively  blanking  out  one  lens 
after  the  other,  1 25  times  per  second. 
Each  eye  sees  a  slightly  offset  image, 
which  combines  to  form  a  near  virtual 
reality  3D  impression  for  the  gamer.  This 
prize  is  an  absolute  ‘must  have’  for 
anyone  who  is  into  PC  gaming. 


To  give 
the  buyer 
something  to 
get  their  teeth 
into,  the  bundle  also  contains 
free  gaming  software  in  the 
shape  of  Need  for  Speed  III, 
Recoil,  and  3D  Games  samplers. 

For  more  information  on 
Elza’s  3D  glasses  and  Graphics 
Card  Bundle,  please  call  0118 
965  7755  orvisitwww.elsa.com. 


«*~To  enter  this  competition  just 
answerthe  following  question: 
How  many  times  a  second  is  one  lens 
blanked  out  after  the  other? 

a)  133 

b)  555 

c)  125 


How  to  enter  the  competitions 


Write  your  name,  address  and 
daytime  telephone  number  on  a 
postcard  or  the  back  of  a  sealed 
envelope.  Mark  your  card (s) 

‘PCW/X plorys  Competition’  or 
‘PCW/ Elsa  Competition’  and  send  to 
the  following  address  by  Friday  30th 
September  1  999: 


Personal  Computer  World 
Building  960 

Sittingbourne  Research  Centre 

Sittingbourne 

Kent  ME9  8AG 

♦  Competitions  open  to  residents  of 
the  UK  only. 


Rules  of  entry 

These  competitions  are  open  to  UK  readers 
of  Personal  Computer  World ,  except  for 
employees  (and  their  families)  ofVNU 
Business  Publications,  Xplorys  and  ELSA. 

The  Editor  of  Personal  Computer  World  is  the 
sole  judge  ofthe  competition  and  his  decision 
is  final.  No  cash  alternative  is  available  in  lieu 
of  prizes. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999  • 


531 


Flashback 


To  kick  ofFthis  new  section  we  take  a  trip  back  in  time  to  unearth  the  burning  issues  that  previous 
PCW  journalists  tackled.  Compiled  by  Matthew  Howard. 


20  YEARS  AGO 


October  1979 


CQmjjnte^ 


It  was  a  very  exciting 
time  forthe  young 
PCW  (just  over  a  year 
old),  as  the  first 
Japanese  PC  had 
arrived  in  the  UK.  The 
article  'Japan  Muscles 
into  Micros’  featured 
the  newly  released  Sharp  MZ-80K,  aimed 
at  the  Commodore  PET  market.  The  big 
question  ofthe  day  was:  'Could  the 
Japanese  make  up  the  year  and  a  half 
lead  oftheir  competitors?’  Looking  back, 
perhaps  that  should  have  been:  'How 
little  time  will  it  take  forthe  Japanese  to 
challenge  the  market  leaders?’ 

One  ofthe  first  programmable 
calculators  was  reviewed  by  Dick 
Pountain,  who  was  amazed  that  it  could 
fit  inside  his  pocket.  He  was  highly 
enthusiastic  about  the  'good-looking’ 
CASIO  FX501  P  and  predicted  it  would 
eat  up  the  market  for  calculators  below 
the  'almost  a  micro’  class.  Today,  you 
can  buy  a  scientific  calculator  with  small 
change  but  in  1 979  the  FX501  P  set  you 
back  a  hefty  £84.95. 

In  a  section  called  'On  the  Line’, 
consultant  David  Hepditch  discussed  the 
practical  technicalities  of  Marshall 
McLuhan’s  concept  ofthe  'Global 
Village’.  McLuhan  realised  how  the 
increasingly  widespread  use  of  personal 
computers  in  the  home  and  office, 
supported  by  advances  in 
telecommunications,  made  for  some 
exciting  possibilities.  It  was  a  prescient 
forecasting  ofthe  adoption  ofthe  Web.  ■ 


15  YEARS  AGO 


October  1984 


^TVrynni] 


The  Commodore 
Plus/4  was 
benchtested  with  the 
magazine  headliner 
'Field  Goal  or  Fumble ?’ 
below  a  burly  US 
football  player. The 
compact-sized  Plus/4 
was  deemed  a  potential  hit  with  home 
users  and  small  businesses  -  a  worthy 
successor  to  the  Commodore  64  and  a 
decent  rival  to  Sinclair’s  QL.  With  built-in 
applications  running  under  BASIC  3.5, 
the  Plus/4  was  a  snip  at  under  £250. 


In  an  article  headed  'Mind  Over  Matter’, 
PCW compared  artificial  intelligence  to 
the  human  brain.  Research  was  under 
way  to  build  a  computer  to  mimic  the 
awesome  processing  structure  ofthe 
human  brain  and  PCW  revealed  there 
were  strong  similarities  between  recent 
innovations  in  computer  technology  and 
the  way  the  brain  works.  Among  the 
major  features  ofthe  human-like  Al 
system  was  the  full  compatibility  within 
its  structure  ofa  program’s  subserving 
functions,  such  as  attention,  memory, 
learning  and  concept  formation. 

Also  new  on  the  market  was  the 
Apricot  FI ,  an  inexpensive  colour 
business  micro  'with  tons  of  bundled 
software’  at  £1 ,300.  The  Intel  8086- 
based  machine  (clocked  at4.77MHz!) 
was  targeted  to  replace  jaded  Apples, 
PETs  and  Sanyos,  and  it  boasted  256Kof 
RAM  and  32l<  ROM.  The  reviewer 
worried  that  itsSony3.5in  diskdrive 
might  overheat,  and  its  unconventional 
mouse  might  better  be  termed  a  rat.  ■ 


10  YEARS  AGO 


October  1989 


'Apple’s  portable 
Macintosh  has 
arrived!’  was  the  news 
1 0  years  ago  this 
month.  After  two  years 
of  rumours,  PCW  had 
secured  a  world 
exclusive  with  a 
Macintosh  Portable  benchtest.  It 
boasted  a  1 6MHz  Motorola  68000 
processor,  1  Mb  of  RAM,  an  'impressive’ 
monochrome  yellow-tinted  screen,  a  lead 
acid  battery,  and  a  trackball  -  it  weighed 
in  at  only  6.8kg.  All  forjust  £4,500! 

In  the  dark  old  days  ofWindows/286 
and  Windows/386,  PCW  put  HDC’s  new 
Windows  Manager  suite  through  its 
paces,  and  found  'little  to  criticise  -  and 
little  competition’.  It  concluded:  'HDC’s 
product  is  a  vast  improvement  over 
native  Windows’  and  'adds  an 
attractiveness  missing  from  the  OS’. 

PCW  also  checked  out  the  Badger 
386  accelerator  board  that  let  you  run  a 
386  computer  (maximum  16MHz)  at  the 
top  speed  ofa  much  more  expensive  486 
(maximum  33MHz).  It  was  considered  a 
good  buy  at  £1 ,295.  But  hold  on,  Stop 
Press!  Suddenly,  Badger’s  manufacturers 


TBI  announced  a  Badger  board  with  a 
486  daughter-board.  Quick  someone, 
add  a  box-out! 

A  timely  article  outlined  how  the 
Soviet  Union  was  tackling  the  PC 
revolution  by  writing  Russian  versions  of 
popular  software  packages.  At  that  time 
the  Soviet  Union  was  thought  to  be 
'catastrophically  lagging  behind  the 
West’  in  the  field  of  computer  technology 
-  for  economic  and  political  reasons.  Our 
article  came  just  before  the  fall  ofthe 
Communists  and  leaves  one  wondering 
how  much  the  West’s  widespread 
adoption  of  PCs  was  the  straw  that  broke 
the  back  ofthe  Russian  political  system.* 


5  YEARS  AGO 


October  1994 


The  era  of  Group  Tests 
was  now  all  the  rage. 
We  featured  1 5  Budget 
Lasers  from  under 
£400  where  a  price  war 
was  developing.  Ofthe 
1 5  models  tested  the 
cheapest  was  the 
Mannesmann  Tally  T91 04W  at  £325. 
Highly  recommended  were  the  HP 
LaserJet  4L  at  £462  and  the  NEC  Silent 
Writer  Super  Script  61 0  at  £350. 

Terence  Green  took  the  wraps  off 
Windows  NT  3.5.  Code-named 
'Daytona’,  it  added  several  features  to 
make  Windows  NT  a  better  multi-tasking 
network  citizen  in  workgroups. 

We  also  interviewed  industry 
heavyweight  Philippe  Kahn,  founder  of 
Borland.  There  was  a  time  when  Borland 
was  one  ofthe  big  software  companies 
alongside  the  likes  of  Microsoft  and 
Lotus.  'Upsizing’  was  high  on  Kahn’s 
agenda  -  building  a  company’s  software 
infrastructure  around  the  currently 
installed  base.  Five  years  later,  with  Kahn 
having  gone  through  his  slimmed-down 
Starfish  phase  -  the  glory  days  are  but  a 
dim  and  distant  memory. 

Perhaps  most  surprising  of  all  was 
PCW’s  slavering  anticipation  forthe  Intel 
90MHzand  100MHz  Pentiums,  set  to 
run  rings  around  the  first  PowerPC  chips 
and  completely  outclass  anything  AMD 
or  Cyrix  had  to  offer.  Our  recently  tested 
550MHz  Pentium  Ills  emphasise  how 
rapidly  Intel  has  advanced  the  power  at 
the  core  ofthe  PC  market.  ■ 


532 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


projects  <&  resources 


The  Internet  continues  to 
offer  PC  users  a  range  of 
useful  not-for-profit 
information  sites  and 
research  projects.  PCW 
continues  its  coverage 
dedicated  to  spreading 
the  news  on  these 
non-commercial  good  works. 
If  you  have  details  of  any  such 
sites,  please  send  information 
to  readerweb@vnu.co.uk 


RESOURCE 


Action  2000 

http:// www.  bug2000.  co.  uk/ 


The  millennium  bug  is  set  to  bite  in 
less  than  three  months’  time  and 
this  top-notch  site,  sponsored  by 

the  UK  Government,  offers  free 
advice  on  how  it  might 

affect  you.  No  matter 
what  level  oftechnical 
expertise  you  have, 
it’s  easy  to  find  lots  of 
information  on  how  to  check 
out  your  own  PC. 

At  http://domestic.bug2000.co.uk/ 
index4.shtml,  for  example,  home 
computer  users  can  find  information  on 
howto  test  their  equipment,  and  advice 
on  what  to  do  without  calling  in  the 
experts.  For  small  business  users, 
as  well  as  home  users,  the  Software 
Status  Database  at  <http://business. 
bug2000.co.uk/get_help/ 
software  index.shtml>  is  also  a  must. 


The  Spy  who  Watched  me 

http:// www.  spy.  org.  uk/ 

This  is  a  not-for-profit  UK  website, 
devoted  to  turning  the  cameras  back 
on  those  who  use  them  to  watch  us. 
While  the  widespread  use  of  CCTV  and 
webcams  has  been  useful  in  tackling 
some  crimes,  the  site  argues  that 

these  technologies 
are  increasingly  used 
by  powerful  vested 
interests  to  monitor 
all  of  us  and  record 
everything  we  do,  in 
order  to  control  us. 
The  site  asks  the 
question:  is  everything  recorded  on 
CCTV  what  it  seems?  There’s  also  a 
section  on  how  much  information  we 
give  away  when  we  visit  a  website.  We 
rate  this  a  big  fat  'P’  for  Paranoia.  That 


SITE  FOCUS 


A  House  without  Windows? 

http:/ /zork.  net/ refund 

he  Microsoft  Refund  Newsletter  site  is  a  cornucopia  of  riches,  put 
together  by  Linux-lovers  obsessed  with  the  Windows  licensing  policy. 

These  are  people  who  regard  Microsoft  in  terms  approaching  fanatical 
zealotry,  and  theirvision  is  single-minded,  focused  and  based  on  pure  hatred. 
Therefore,  it’s  utterly  fascinating. 

There  are  links  to  some  long-winded,  scrupulous  accounts  ofthe  attempts 
of  early  campaigners  who  fought  with  Microsoft  OEMs  (the  hardware 
manufacturers  which  assemble  PCs)  to  buy  a  machine  without  the  operating 
system.  Meeting  with  a  wall  of  obstruction  and  half-hearted  'Sorry,  it  can’t  be 
done!’  arguments  meant  that  these  conscientious  objectors  just  got  madder  and 
madder  and  more 
determined  to  win 
the  point  of 
principle.  'Why 
should  I  be  forced  to 
buy  something  I 

don’t  intend  to  use?’  asks  Donna,  and  it’s  hard  not  to  sympathise  with  her 
struggle. 

The  'Refundees’  are  now  arguing  that  it’s  best  to  take  up  your  case  directly  with 
Microsoft,  rather  than  its  OEMs.  Don’t  click  the  YES  button  when  you  first  switch 
on  the  machine,  they  advise;  instead,  boot  up  from  pre-prepared  floppies  and 
then  apply  to  Microsoft  for  a  refund. 

Amid  all  this  blinkered  prejudice,  you  start  to  wonder  how  bad  Microsoft  really 
is.  For  many  people  who  have  bought  PCs,  the  company’s  operating  system  and 
the  standards  that  have  been  created  around  Windows  have  enabled  a  great  deal 
of  productivity,  communication  and  fun.  The  Refund  Newsletter  site,  however,  is  a 
resource  for  the  few  who  care  to  dissent  from  that  view  -  the  anti-Gates  rebels  who 
have  always  belived  the  Mac  was  better,  that  Unix  was  stability  personified  and 
that  Linux  will  one  day  rule  the  Internet.  Take  your  pick. 


doesn’t  mean  they’re  not  out  to  get 
you,  though! 

PROJECT 

The  Power  of  Images 

http://www.  cast.  org/strategies/image_barrier.html#Power 

CAST  is  an  educational,  not-for-profit 
organisation  that  aims  to  make 
the  most  of  technology  as  a  way  of 
expanding  opportunities  for  those 
with  disabilities. 

However,  new  technology  can  not 
only  liberate  the  disabled,  it  can  also 
work  against  them.  One  ofthe  projects 
that  CAST  is  promoting  aims  to  help  the 
visually  impaired  get  more  out  ofthe 
Web.  CAST  is  asking  sympathisers 
building  Web  pages  to  make 
their  use  of  images  more 
friendly  to  those  who  are 
visually  impaired. 

Images  are  hugely 
powerful  and 
increasingly  central 
to  all  our  major 
communication  and 


entertainment  mediums.  However,  if 
websites  use  visual  elements  that  have 
no  identifiers,  they  can  become  mean¬ 
ingless  to  many  surfers.  The  project 
suggests  that  judicious  use  of  ALT  tags 
and  D-Links  can  be  a  major  way  of 
helping  Web  designers  make  their  sites 
more  accessible. 

Search  the  Stars 

h  ttp://www.  setiathome.  ssl.  berkleyedu/ 

Yes,  the  search  for  extra-terrestrial  intelli¬ 
gent  life  is  gathering  pace  with  this  pro¬ 
ject  to  analyse  radio  signals  from  across 
the  universe.  All  you  need  do  is  down¬ 
load  a  piece  of  software  from  this  US 
university  site  and  then  use  the 
idle  processing  time,  when 
your  PC  normally  simply 
displays  a  screensaver,  to 
'analyse’  lengthy  periods  of 
radio  signals  to  see  if  any 
pattern  emerges  that  might 
represent  intelligent  communi¬ 
cation  aimed  at  Earth.  At  the 
very  least,  seti@home  is  becoming 
the  coolest  screensaver  to  use. 


531 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999 


retro 


MB  Vectrex 


As  the  console  that  brought  the  arcade  into  the  living  room,  the  MB  Vectrex  still  has  devotees. 


Back  in  the  early  80s,  the  Vectrex 
broke  the  mould  of  games 
consoles  by  not  requiring  a 
TV  set.  A  standalone  black  unit  with 
built-in  monitor,  it  could  justifiably 
be  described  in  appearance  as  the 
anti-Macintosh  -  except  that  Apple 
was  at  least  one  year  away  from 
launching  its  all-in-one. 

The  Vectrex  story  starts  back  in 
early  1 981 ,  as  a  project  to  fit  a  load  of 
small  CRTs  found  in  a  liquidator’s 
surplus  store  into  a  table-top  home 
console  called  the  mini-arcade.  Jay 
Smith  and  his  team  at  Western 
Electronics/Smith  Engineering 
developed  the  concept  further  into 
a  product  licensed  by  General 
Consumer  Electronics  (GCE).  The 
original  5in  tube  was  replaced  by  a  ' 
9in  model  and  an  upright  case  was 
designed.  Complete  with  a  swish  new 
name,  the  Vectrex  was  unveiled  to  the 
public  at  the  Summer  1 982  Consumer 
Electronics  Show  and  was  later 
available  in  the  US  for  $1 99. 

In  spring  1 983,  GCE  was 
acquired  by  board  games 
giant  Milton  Bradley  (MB), 
which  later  distributed  the 
Vectrex  across  Europe  (£1 50  in  the  UK). 


rifc.i 

Y 


The  Vectrex  was  unique,  not  only  for  its 
built-in  portrait  aspect  9x1 1  in  monitor, 
but  because  it  employed  vector  display 
technology.  Similar  to  the  tubes  used  in 
early  oscilloscopes,  the  display  could 
draw  perfectly  straight  bright  lines  which 
didn’t  suffer  from 
the  stepped  pixel 
appearance  of 
raster-based 
systems.  It  was, 
in  fact,  the  same 
technology  used 
by  the  coin-op  arcade  classics  Asteroids, 
Tempest  and  Star  Wars.  Like  Asteroids, 
the  Vectrex  display  was  mono,  so  its 
game  designers  supplied  clip-on 
coloured  acetate  overlays,  delivering  an 
effect  not  dissimilar  to  the  original  Space 
Invaders  coin-op. 

Atari  may  have  owned  the  Asteroids 
brand  and  written  a  half-decent  version 
for  its  VCS  console,  but  it  was  down  to 
GCE  to  produce  the  definitive  home 
clone.  Thanks  to  the  same  unique  display 


technology  as  the  arcade  coin-op, 
Vectrex  Minestorm  remains  the  most 
authentic  home  version  of  Asteroids 
today.  Minestorm  was  actually  built  into 
the  machine,  although  a  bug  that 
prevented  early  copies  from  progressing 
beyond  Wave  1 3  was  the  driving  force 
behind  the 


The  Vectrex  started  as 
a  project  to  fit  a  load 
of  small  CRTs  into  a 
table-top  home  console 


Minestorm  II 
cartridge. 

Th  e  vector- 
based  Tempest 
arcade  coin-op 
was  flipped  back 
to  front  and  converted  into  the  Vectrex 
classic  Bedlam.  Scramble  and  Berserk 
were  licensed  into  highly  playable 
conversions.  The  original  Spike  game 
(despite  inspiration  from  Donkey  Kong) 
even  featured  basic  speech  synthesis: 
‘Eek,  help  Spike!’  and  ‘Oh  no,  Molly!’ 
stunned  many  impressionable  teenagers. 
Minestorm  aside,  the  greatest  Vectrex 
game  borrowed  the  best  bits  of  the 
Tempest  and  Star  Wars  coin-ops, 
resulting  in  the  amazing  3D  WebWarp. 


◄  MB  Vectrex:  its  loyal 

BAND  OF  FOLLOWERS  WERE  IN 
LOVE  WITH  ITS  VECTOR-BASED 
TECHNOLOGY  AND  COIN  -OP 
STANDARDS  OF  GAMING 

Powering  the  Vectrex  was 

a  1 .6MHz version  ofthe 
Motorola  6809,  called  the 
68 A09,  backed  up  by 
General  Instruments’ 
AY-3-81 92  3-tone 
generator  sound  chip. 
Common  subroutines  and 
instructions  were  stored  in 
an  8Kx  8-bit  2363  ROM, 
while  a  pair  of  1  Kx  4-bit 
21 14  static  RAMs  supplied 
storage  during  gameplay. 
Most  games  cartridges 
measured  4K,  apart  from 
a  few  rarities  which 
included  Spike  at  8K. 

The  standard 

four-button  analogue  joystick 
handset  could  be  complemented 
by  a  second  for  two-player  games,  and 
there  was  even  a  commercial  light  pen. 
But  did  the  legendary  3D  glasses,  which 
provided  basic  colour  support,  ever 
make  it  out  ofthe  trade  shows?  Like 
ColecoVision’s  Adam,  Vectrex  even  had 
a  computer  keyboard  add-on  -  well,  a 
good  rumour  of  one  anyway. 

Sadly,  in  1 984,  the  Vectrex  was 
discontinued  as  home  computers  took 
over.  Its  story  doesn’t  end  quite  there 
though.  In  1 988,  Western  Technologies 
and  Smith  Engineering  were  rumoured 
to  attempt  a  handheld  Vectrex 
resurrection  using  the  Sinclair  pocket 
flat  TV;  Nintendo’s  Gameboy  in  1 989 
scuppered  that  plan. 

Like  most  classic  consoles,  however, 
the  Vectrex  lives  on  over  the  Internet. 
There’s  an  excellent  PC  emulator  and 
even  development  of  new  games,  led 
primarily  byjohn  Dondzilawith  his 
Vector  Vaders,  a  long  overdue  Space 
Invader  clone.  As  the  MB  poster 
campaign  used  to  state:  ‘If you  think 
you’ve  mastered  video  games,  we  have 
some  bad  news  for  you.’ 

Gordon  Laing 

www.monmouth.com/~pcjohn/ 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  1999